Willow's Witch Slayers
by Mist of Rainbows
Summary: Further adventures of Willow and crew as they track down the scattered multidimensional slayers. Warnings contains ff pairings, may contain mildly offensive language and some descriptions of violence.
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes: I do not own anything but the plot and any characters you might later see that you do not recognize. This story is in the same world as my other two stories. I suggest you read them first. I've borrowed some characters from the Buffy verse as well as X-men world. This story is starting as a cross between Buffy and The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I of course do not own any of the characters in his books either.

Neville sat on Lexie's bed watching her work away at her computer. He glanced around the now familiar sparsely furnished room. He noted the couch neatly pushed against one wall. He glanced over at Rogue and Dawn who were flopped down on beanbag chairs playing a combat video game.

Dawn frowned after she lost for the third time in a row. "Damned slayer reflexes."

Rogue grinned, "Ah sugar that has nothing to do with it. I'm just better at this type of thing than you."

Dawn ignored Rogue's comments and looked around the room her eyes rested on the vertical metal poll in the center of the room. "I still can't believe you use that Lexie."

Lexie smiled and looked up from putting together her latest computer. "I need something to do to keep in shape, besides I like dancing."

Dawn chuckled at Neville's blush, "I'm sure other people like your dancing as well."

Rogue grinned, "I like it, when she lets me watch."

"Have you given any thought to your magic?"

Lexie sighed in frustration and turned to face Dawn, "Willow and I have been trying things for the past several weeks. I cannot use a wand like Neville or Hermione. I cannot really do much at all with my magic. I cannot even do the simplest incantations. It's very frustrating. Willow has been researching but hasn't come up with much. She has an idea where I could go to get training but wasn't sure of the details until last night."

Neville frowned, "So you're going to go on a trip soon aren't you?"

"That's the plan. I wish you could come with but Willow says your magic wouldn't work."

"I would still come to defend you but I'm afraid I would be the one needing help. I also have a lot of work to do on the Hyperion Hotel now that we moved it to this pocket dimension. Willow is pushing for a fountain and I want to redo some of the planters with magical flowers."

Lexie leans over and gives Neville a light kiss on the nose. "I know but I'll have Willow with me. We should be able to keep each other safe. I'm still a slayer even if I have this magic I don't understand."

Dawn smiled, "Moving that hotel was worse than moving Harry's house."

Rogue frowned and adjusted her skirt, "It is a lot bigger. Why wouldn't it be harder?"

Dawn frowned, "I was just surprised that it was so hard even with the extra help, that's all."

"So did Anya and Xander move into the hotel yet?"

"Yeah, we also got most of the computer parts you wanted for your shop as well."

Rogue grinned, "So how much money are you worth these days?"

Lexie giggled, "So you're telling me that you wouldn't love me if I was poor?"

"Nah, I'm just curious."

Lexie grinned, "I'm doing better than Anya, so at least I have a way to shut her up when she doesn't stop talking about money."

"At least you're doing better than I am for money."

"Hey, I know that you get a generous pay check from the multi-dimensional watchers council."

Dawn grinned, "Yeah but having an annual income of several thousand dollars isn't the same as a net worth of over a million."

Lexie shrugged, "I expect to increase in wealth the more worlds we run into that need better computers and electronics. Mostly I'm just happy that it means I can make sure that the orphanage doesn't have any more money problems."

Neville smiled, "Some things never change."

"Speaking of things that don't change, can I get you to read me a story?"

Neville smiled and held up a thick hardbound book, "Of course, how about more of the Lord of the Rings?"

Lexie grinned and nodded before she slipped out of her lab coat and crawled into bed. Rogue smiled, turned off the game and curled up on the couch to listen.

Dawn shook her head before leaving the room. "Night, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite."

Rupert Giles glanced over the table at Remus Lupin. "How was your honeymoon?"

Remus smiled, "It was nice to not have to worry about dark wizards attacking. The sun and beach were very pleasant as well."

"I'm glad to hear that you have been enjoying yourself. I wanted to ask your thoughts on the problem of teaching the various slayers magic."

"I think that is going to be up to the girls themselves. Some of them are not going to want to learn. I don't think all of them are going to be able to use magic. However, if that is the case we will just have to take it one step at a time."

Giles took a sip of his tea. "You are an excellent teacher; the students seem to like having you around."

Remus grinned, "Well to be fair studying monsters is more interesting than history. Have you given any thought on how you are going to deal with history being different on each world?"

"I've given up trying to teach them history and switched to focusing on a wide range of research techniques. That way they will have the skills to look up any information they need."

Remus chuckled, "I'm sure that some of the girls would like to hear your thoughts on magic and demons. You should stop by tomorrow for their lesson."

"I will stop buy, I'm enjoying having some time not having to deal with the council."

"They still giving you trouble?"

"At every budget meeting, some of the old crowd keep proposing that we stop paying the slayers."

"I'm glad that you're there to keep beating them down. I would hate to see the girls going out and having to worry about making a living."

Giles shook his head, "Buffy had to work at the Double Meat Palace, a crappy burger joint because she needed money to keep the house she was living in. I don't really want any of the girls having to go through that. So how are you guys dealing with money here?"

Remus grinned, "Tonks, Lexie, Willow and I get a salary for teaching various classes. Dawn gets a salary for transportation services, and the slayers get a salary for being slayers. Ron and Neville get a salary for being watchers."

"I'm just glad that one of our organizations is starting off right. Now if you will excuse me, I want to look through the library some more."

Remus nodded, "Be my guest there are some very interesting books in there."

Willow yawned the next morning and looked around at her friends. "We ready to face the unknown and collect another slayer?"

Dawn smiled, "Just make sure you come back in one piece."

Willow smiled and leaned over and kissed Dawn on the lips for a few seconds before she pulled back. "I will come back in one piece promise."

"Just make sure to have fun on your trip and get in lots of snuggle time."

Lexie blushed and looked away from Dawn, "Shouldn't we be leaving already?"

Hermione smiled at Lexie, "I just wanted a chance to give Willow a kiss before she runs off on her adventure." Hermione walked over to Willow and kissed her on the lips.

Ron grinned, "That's still a strange sight."

Giles shook his head, "Just make sure you two are careful. Be careful using your magic at first Willow it might be a touch unpredictable."

Willow grinned, "I know, I'll be careful."

Harry glanced over at the backpacks at Willow and Lexie's feet. "Do you think you have everything you need?"

"Yes, I even packed the tent."

Dawn smiled and raised her hands opening up a portal with a flick of her wrist. "Make sure you two get in some decent snuggle time."

Rogue chuckled and reached up to kiss Lexie on the lips. "You two have fun."

Lexie blushed, "I will."

Neville grinned, "Just make sure that you have a good time and find the slayer you're supposed to."

Willow grinned and stepped through the portal. Lexie followed just a step behind.

Dawn looked over at Hermione, "So when do we get to have an adventure?"

Hermione grinned, "When the children are grown up? Or maybe when we go back to my world to kick Voldemort's ass."

"I can settle for that. I'm sort of glad that Willow left Gabrielle here."

Hermione shrugged, "She didn't want to put her in danger."

"I think she just didn't want to have to change her diapers. Speaking of the munchkins, they are still asleep and Faith is on baby duty. Do you think we could spend the day by the pool relaxing?"

"Relaxing eh?"

Dawn blushed, "Well maybe a bit more than relaxing."

Giles took his glasses off and polished them, "Ah I think I should go check on those books."

Rogue chuckled as Giles fled the room, "I think you broke him."

Dawn giggled, "Nah, any damage is just temporary."

Willow looked around at the forest they found themselves in. "I guess it could be worse. We could be in a desert."

Lexie grinned, "Ah, I might be a slayer but I'm very much a city girl. Which direction do we need to go?"

Willow grinned as she pulled out a compass, "I came prepared. I enchanted it to find the direction of the nearest slayer other than you."

She grinned before looking around at the trees in the forest and swatted a bug on her arm, "I'm glad that someone came prepared."

"I wouldn't have guessed that you don't like the outdoors. You like hanging out in Neville's garden."

She blushed, "Yeah, but I like spending time with him. Besides, the plants are pretty."

Willow grinned and checked the compass. Raising her hand, she pointed towards the darkest area of the forest. "Through there."

Lexie sighed, "Any idea of how far?"

"Maybe a few hours walk."

"Couldn't your sweetie put us closer?"

"She could have but we wanted to not scare our new slayer. I also wanted to get an idea of the environment before we just appeared."

"Alright I guess we have to start walking then."

Willow grinned, "I guess."

Siuan Sanche sighed in frustration as a guardsman blocked her way and sank down into a deep bow.

"Aes Sedai, I was ordered to tell an Aes Sedai if we found something strange."

Siuan grumbled, "What do you have to report soldier, get on with it, I don't have all day."

"My patrol stopped a young lady and her sister on the path, she asked about a girl that might be in the camp. I thought I should ask an Aes Sedai before I told them anything."

"How far are they?"

"They are just outside the camp being watched by the rest of my patrol."

Siuan sighed in relief at not having to ride a horse. "Show me where they are please."

Siuan was still grumbling when she spotted what could only be the two young ladies the guard was talking about. Siuan noted that the older girl was wearing a deep purple silk dress that clashed with her shoulder length auburn hair. The younger girl was taller than her 'sister' by a fair degree. She was wearing a simple green silk dress that clung to her young body in ways that might make a Domani blush, her waist long brown hair softly blowing in the wind.

Siuan found herself gazing upwards to look into the younger girl's blue eyes. With a jolt she realized that the young girl could channel, with a further shock Siuan realized that she was stronger than Nynaeve Al'Meara or even Sharina Melloy. Siuan relaxed slightly when she found the older girl lacking the ability to channel. Siuan nodded for the guardsmen to leave knowing that he wouldn't be of any help if the girls weren't who they said they were. The guardsmen scattered back into the forest to keep watch for other strange visitors.

Willow frowned as she let her senses extend to size up the young lady in front of her for magic. Her thoughts, 'She doesn't have nearly as much magic as Lexie or even Amy. At least that explains the strange feeling I was getting off of her.'

Siuan frowned and tried to control her breathing. "The guardsman said that you were looking for a girl that might be here."

Willow smiled, "I'm looking for Bodewhin Cauthon."

Siuan frowned and her face displayed her shock at them asking after a novice. "What do you want with Bodewhin?"

Willow smiled, "We want to talk to her about something. Can you take us to her please?"

"Do you have names or do you just expect us to take you to see one of the novices in our care without even a name to call you."

Willow smiled being careful to avoid showing her fangs. "I'm Willow Rosenberg and this is Lexie. Do you have a name?"

Siuan frowned and raised herself to her full height even though it was less than Lexie's height. "You may call me Siuan Sedai." She glanced at Lexie before gulping her mind still trying to process the girl's strength. "Has your sister considered becoming a novice?"

Lexie glanced over at Willow, "What is a novice?"

Willow frowned, "I think she means novice in learning the magical arts."

Lexie frowned, "I'm not sure, I have to talk to Bodewhin first before making any plans."

Siuan cringed at the casual dismissal in the girl's voice at the idea of becoming a novice. 'The tower isn't going to let this girl's strength be wasted, no matter what her wishes. She is too strong to not be guided by the tower.'

Willow kept her face blank with an effort as she listened to the thoughts of the so-called Aes Sedai in front of her. She frowned and knew that leaving Lexie to train with these people would be a waste of time.

Lexie saw Willow's face scrunch up in annoyance and decided that a quick change of pace would be a good thing. "I don't suppose you could show me around camp. Maybe answer some of my questions about being a novice. After you have determined that we aren't a threat maybe you could let us talk to Bodewhin. We really should talk to her sooner than later."

Siuan frowned ever so slightly, "What do you have to tell her?"

Willow smiled and projected her thoughts to Lexie, "I know where she is, she couldn't help thinking about her. I guess they don't have much in the way of mind magic in this world; otherwise, her thoughts would be more guarded. If you want to take the grand tour, I'll sneak in and have a chat with Bode."

Lexie's thoughts back, 'Just be careful. Just because this witch couldn't sense your power doesn't mean the rest of them are stone cold blind.'

Willow frowned, 'Hey, I'm doing really well with my shields.'

Lexie grinned at Siuan and lied smoothly. "Just some messages from home." Lexie tossed a thought at the departing Willow before she grabbed Siuan's hand. 'You leak more power than most witches ever dream of having.' "Shall we leave and go explore the encampment, I'm afraid my sister is hungry she gets a bit cranky when she hasn't eaten."

Siuan frowned at Willow and pointed out the kitchen tents off in the distance. "You may have a meal there before you get ready for your voyage back." Siuan's thoughts, 'Anything to get rid of you so I can write your sister's name in the novice books.'

Willow laughed softly to herself and left to go find Bodewhin.

Bodewhin shivered and turned towards the tent flap sure that something powerful was coming towards her. Her wooden mug creaked dangerously as she fidgeted with it. Bodewhin took a deep breath as she tried to relax and stop her thoughts from running away with her. 'First you're having strange dreams and now you're being scared of nothing. It's probably just a sister on some business. No reason to think the presence is coming closer. If Matt could hear me now he would laugh at his little sister being for afraid of shadows."

She stared as a beautiful pale faced lady with red hair stepped up to the tent flap. She blinked as her senses told her two different things. She could sense that the lady before her couldn't channel and yet her new senses told her that the lady had more power than any of the Aes Sedai she had ever met.

Willow smiled down at the young lady in the tent. "Bodewhin can you spare me some of your time? I have a few things to say that you might find interesting."

"You're one of the girls from my dreams."

Willow smiled, "I expect that a short blonde is also in your dreams. However, I do believe we shouldn't talk about such things where others can hear. May I come in?"

Bodewhin glanced nervously at Willow before gesturing her into the tent.

Willow stepped into the tent with a smile. She glanced around at the various cots and personal items. "I'm sure you have questions about your increased strength as well as the dreams."

Bodewhin nodded nervously. "I wasn't sure who to tell. Constantly dreaming of shadow spawn isn't considered normal by any means. I would have told the Amyrlin Seat if she was still here. It is said that she has strange dreams. I was worried that someone would start to question all of the broken mugs. I almost stole one of the heartstone mugs, just so I would stop breaking them."

Willow smiled, "You're a slayer, and more specifically you're a vampire slayer."

"I've seen images in my dreams about vampires but never thought they were real until you showed up. What does a vampire slayer do? And why hasn't anyone ever heard of them."

"I suspect that no one has heard about them because they are from a different world. I come from a world quite a bit different than this one."

"How do you come from a different world?"

Willow grinned and looked around the room before spotting a stump of a candle. "Mind if I borrow your candle?"

Bode shook her head. "If it will help me understand what you are talking about please do."

Willow reached out and picked it up from its place on the folding table. She carefully blew on the candle as if she were blowing it out.

Bode gasped as a small flame flickered to life. "I didn't see you channel."

Willow grinned and held up the now lit candle, "I used my magic to light the candle. You use your world's magic. Very different types of magic and yet both a type of magic. I would love the chance to share more of my world with you but I need to leave before your friends get back. It wouldn't do to have them think you're "friends" with a strange lady. I'll come back as soon as I can to tell you more about being a slayer." She stepped outside and let the tent flap fall.

Bode rushed out to pull open the tent flap to look to see where Willow went. She glanced around the street such as it was and saw the usual number of girls in white hurrying along but didn't see any ladies in purple. She looked down at the lit candle and sighed. "This is going to be a long day."


	2. Knock Before you Enter

Author's notes: I do not own anything but the plot and any characters you might see that you do not recognize.

Bode collapsed on her cot and thought to herself. 'It's not possible, why couldn't I see it. She lit the candle and I couldn't feel it. Whom do I trust with that tale? Would they even believe that it was true? If it is true, could they do anything about it? If the dreams about her are true, I do not think they could. I do not know what I am going to do. Should I be so happy about the chance to meet her again?' She played with her braid in thought and tried to sort through her feelings.

Lexie tried to hide a grin at the annoyed look on Siuan's face. "So why white? I mean it's got to be hard to clean and keep perfectly white."

Siuan's expression twisted in annoyance for a brief second as the damned child asked what seemed like the hundredth question that she could only reply, "Because it's tradition."

Lexie turned and let her grin escape a touch as the Aes Sedai was distracted. "In other words it's white because it has always been white and you can't find a reason to change it."

Siuan scowled, "We should get you to Tiana Noselle and let you sign the book of novices."

Lexie frowned, "I'm sure you said who that is but I must have been paying too much attention to the cute soldiers in the camp. Do you think you could repeat who she is again?"

Siuan's hands gripped her skirts and twisted the material in frustration. "Tiana Noselle or Tiana Sedai is the mistress of novices. She is the one that will be responsible for you once you sign your name in the book and start classes." Siuan's thoughts, 'She is also the one that is going to keep you far away from those soldiers.'

Lexie grinned as Willow walked around the corner of a tent. "You've given me a lot to think about. Do you mind if we rest here a night before I make a decision."

Siuan took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. "That would be fine. Do you have a tent at least?"

Willow smiled at Siuan, "Of course we have a tent."

Siuan nodded and gestured toward the rows of novice tents, "You may set it up with the rest then. You may give your answer in the morning." Siuan sniffed and stalked off with a scowl impressive enough to cause the servants and accepted to jump out of her way quicker than normal.

Willow watched her go with a frown, "You were being difficult weren't you?"

Lexie shrugged, grinned, tried and failed to look innocent. "I might have been asking a few too many questions and making her repeat herself more than I should have. She is sort of a cranky lady though."

Willow chuckled, "You're horrible."

"So do I get a spanking?" Lexie smiled.

"Maybe, though I think you should have picked a different dress the locals are staring."

Lexie glared fiercely at the various men that were looking her way. "Maybe I over did the acting a touch. So did you get to meet Bodewhin? Is she cute?"

Willow grinned, "In a sort of pleasantly plump sort of way."

"Better that, than boney, they don't make very good pillows that way."

Willow shook her head, "We should get moving and set up the tent before it gets too dark for you to see."

Bode frowned and ate her evening supper. She hoped that the food tasted badly because she was so worried about things and not because it was rotten. Too many meals spoiled before they were eaten these days. She sighed, these last few days she had gotten an urge to wander around at night. She tried very hard not give in to the urge to wander but the itch was getting worse every night. She sighed, 'Maybe if I just walk around a touch I'll be able to sleep.' She slipped out of the tent that held the meal hall and started wandering.

Willow smiled as the tent set itself up by magic. Lexie frowned, "What would Dawn say about you using magic to do simple things like set up your tent?"

"Oh cool can you teach me the spell? It wasn't my magic anyways; it's a magic tent from Harry's world. They set themselves up. I was never much with the camping at home." She slipped into the tent.

Lexie shook her head, smiled and slipped inside the tent. She looked around the large bedroom and noted with interest that it had a moderately sized kitchen off to the side as well as a bathroom off to the other side. A set of old wooden chairs sat around the kitchen table. "Camping in style. Only one bed though."

"There is a cot under the bed."

Lexie glanced at the bed, "Oh no way am I going to sleep on a cot while you sleep in the nice comfy bed."

"Well I'm not sleeping on the cot either. I'll share if you're not afraid of me biting you in your sleep." Willow flashed Lexie a smile not bothering to try to hide her fangs.

Lexie grinned, "You aren't going to scare me away from a nice nights sleep."

Willow grinned and sat on the bed. She reached up and loosened the ties on her dress so she could slip out of it. Lexie grinned and eyed Willow's purple silk underwear with interest. Willow hung the dress on a hook on the wall then sat back down on the bed and pulled off her boots. "So are you going to sleep in your dress?"

Lexie shook her head and bit her lip nervously, "No, sorry I just got distracted that's all." She reached up and easily slipped her dress off revealing only a pair of green silk panties without a top.

Willow's breath caught as she got a close look at Lexie's trim body. The candlelight danced on her pale skin. Her eyes floated up to rest on Lexie's little pert nipples before drifting down to follow her legs down to her black painted toenails. She pulled her eyes up back past her chest to look at Lexie's face. Lexie's wavy brown hair hung slightly over the left side of her face.

Lexie smiled slightly, "Do you like what you see?"

Willow smiled, "What's not to like."

Lexie shrugged, "I don't know, some people would think I could use a tan but I sort of like the pale look."

Willow grinned and held her arm out to compare with Lexie's arm. "I think I'm still paler than you are." Willow climbed up on the bed and leaned back against the headboard. "So what's the plan?"

Lexie hung her dress up against the wall. She turned, smiled and jumped up next to Willow. "Well I figure we snuggle a touch and then you tell me how I'm going to avoid signing that book and having to put up with those awful women teaching me magic."

Willow put her arm around Lexie's shoulders, "Well I'm not sure, but I think Bode would be willing to go with us. If that happens, you can at least learn the basics from her. We might have to resort to taking pictures of the Aes Sedai and using magic on them so the pictures can teach you."

"So is the tent warded against people coming and interrupting us?"

Willow frowned, "Yeah, I used an enchantment that should repel anyone unwanted, sort of makes them ignore the tent."

Lexie grinned, carefully grabbed Willow's hand, and gently moved it to rest on her own breast.

Willow's breath caught for a second, "Ah Lexie…"

Lexie whispers softly, "Can you just help me relax, please." She let out the breath she was holding as Willow's fingers started moving gently over her skin. Lexie leaned back and enjoyed the gentle trailing fingers.

Bodewhin looked around the novice camp knowing that the strange feeling had brought her here. She could feel that there was something off about the tent in front of her. Her eyes wanted to slip past it and pay it no mind. Her new senses told her that something was weird about the tent and that she should not let her eyes slip past. She frowned in thought as she walked closer towards the tent. 'I should at least make sure nothing is wrong, and then I'll get some sleep.'

Lexie shivered as Willow's fingers glided along the outside of the damp silk of her panties. Willow whispered a short spell to chill her breath then blew cold air over the silk and down her legs. Lexie shivered again as Willow gently pulled her panties down and off her legs. Willow held the panties up to her nose and inhaled deeply. With a shocked look on her face, she turned towards the door still holding the panties up in the air.

Bodewhin hesitated at the tent flap and felt the same strange sense of power as the lady in purple gave off. It felt like she had just used her strange magic again. Tired of not understanding what was going on and wishing for answers she pushed past the tent flap. She stopped and stared at the sight before her. The lady from before was wearing bare scraps of purple cloth. Bode had a hard time figuring out how they stayed attached. She was holding some tiny piece of green silk with her left hand whilst her right rested gently on a grinning naked girl. The girl was on her hands and knees without a stitch of clothing. Bode looked at the sight before her for a few seconds in stunned silence.

Willow winced, "Not exactly the best way to meet."

Lexie grinned and moved her body gracefully as she stretched her arms up over her head and drew Bode's eyes to her chest.

Willow waved her hand at the kitchen chair and levitated it over to position it to catch Bode as she collapsed into it.

"I think you broke her Lexie."

"How did she get through the wards?"

"I imagine that the slayer senses told her something was wrong with the tent and she burst in while I was distracted." Willow blushed.

Bode closed her eyes and blushed red. "I'm sorry, I'll leave. I just sensed your power and thought I could get some answers."

Lexie chuckled, "Got more answers than you wanted didn't you? I hope you at least liked what you saw."

Bode turned an even brighter red. "I'm not sure what I saw."

Willow walked over and pulled on a nightgown. "Lexie aren't you going to put something else on?"

Lexie grinned and shook her head, her hair flying in many directions. "Why should I? She is the one that came some place she wasn't supposed too. Not that you aren't welcome here Bode."

Bode sighed and rested her head in her hands. "I'm sorry."

Willow sighed, "Don't worry about it. Lexie is just sort of hot and bothered. She is normally a charming and delightful girl to hang out with."

Bode frowned and then blushed when she figured out what Willow meant with her comments. "You said you were from a different world? If I went with you would I make a difference?"

Lexie reached over, picked up her hairbrush, and started combing out her hair. "You would be useful and you have a place with us. If you decide you don't like staying with us you can come back at any time. I need someone to teach me your style of magic as well."

Willow nodded, "What are the chances of her learning on her own."

Bode looked up at Lexie, "About one in four girls that touch the source without training survive." She blinked and stared at Lexie's hairless crotch. "You shaved…"

Lexie grinned, "Not much to shave in the first place."

Willow tossed a blanket at Lexie, "Cover up before you permanently break her. If you don't, you can sleep on the cot tonight."

Lexie frowned and wrapped the blanket around herself. "Fine so when do we want to leave this world?"

"How about in the morning?"

Bode pulled her eyes off Lexie to look at Willow. "So what am I supposed to tell people? They treat runaways badly here."

"They aren't even going to know you're gone. No time will pass here while you're away. You aren't really going to run away, just help us out and get some training so that you'll be better prepared to fight the forces of darkness here."

Bode nodded, "I'll go with you. I should get back before someone notices I'm gone."

Willow smiled, "Alright I'll talk with you in the morning."

Bode stood a bit unsteadily and walked out of the tent. Lexie grinned, uncovered herself, and tossed the blanket off. "So where were we?"

Willow chuckled reached out and brushed her fingers over Lexie's crotch, "I think we should just get some sleep."

Lexie sighed and groaned, "So not fair."

Willow shrugged out of her robe and crawled under the covers. "I know but I've had a long day. I'm not really in the mood to play any more tonight."

Lexie crawled under the covers and snuggled close to Willow. Willow hugged her close, drifted off to sleep and dreamt of Tara.


	3. The Family We Choose

Author's notes: I do not own anything but the plot and any characters you might see that you do not recognize.

Willow yawned and woke up the next morning to the smell of cooked bacon. Willow turned her head and glanced over towards the kitchen to watch Lexie cook. Lexie was standing near the stove holding a skillet in her left hand as she poked at the bacon with a fork held in her left. It took Willow a minute to realize that Lexie was only wearing a white apron and that Lexie's tush was on display as she danced around cooking. Lexie hummed to herself while she worked on the meal.

Willow leaned back into her pillow and enjoyed the view. "So did you make coffee?"

Lexie grinned, took the pan off the stove and rested it on the tiled counter. "Yes there is coffee."

"Could you bring me some please?"

"What do I get out of it?"

"A witch that isn't cranky?"

Lexie grinned, poured a cup of coffee and walked over to the edge of the bed. "Any good dreams?" She held the cup out towards Willow.

Willow took the coffee from Lexie's outstretched hand. "I was dreaming about Tara again. The only thing is the dreams were pretty life-like. In some, she was doing simple normal things like making dinner or putting away dishes and in some of them, she was practicing with a sword. She seemed happy in most of the scenes."

Lexie frowned. "Why is it strange to dream about the girl you loved?"

"It's not that dreaming about her is that strange, it's that in some of the scenes she was practicing with a sword. Why would I be dreaming of her with a sword?"

Lexie shrugged and rested her hand on Willow's knee, "Sometimes a dream is just a dream. I know I've had some strange dreams before. Maybe it's just your way of not forgetting about her."

Willow took a sip of her coffee, "I don't know but I'll worry about it later. I want some food before I have to face the day."

Lexie got up, walked over to the pan, and tossed the bacon on a plate. She grinned as she sat back down on the edge of the bed and held out the plate of bacon for Willow. "Your breakfast is served my lady."

Willow chuckled as she grabbed a piece of the still warm bacon off the plate and devoured it. Lexie grabbed a few pieces between chatter about their plans.

Bode grumbled as she pulled herself out of bed. She glanced around at the other girls hastily getting ready for classes and thought 'What do I really know about them. Am I going to spend endless hours making heartstone trinkets for the Aes Sedai to sell? I bet that if I wanted to make something for myself, they would frown and say that I didn't have enough training. As if any of them could even get the weave to work. Yet I still want to learn what they dribble out but they are so damn serious all of the time. If I go with Willow and Lexie, what type of life will I have? Maybe a dangerous life but at least I wouldn't have to put up with doing endless chores for a while. I'd have a purpose there. Here I would spend years training at a snails pace while people older and supposedly wiser go about playing their games as the world burns around them.'

Althyn Conly poked Bode in the arm interrupting her thoughts, "You need to get up and head to the tent for making the cuendillar trinkets."

Bodewhin groaned and tried to shake the sleep from her eyes. "How much time do I have before I have to go?"

"A few candle marks."

"Why did you get me out of my day dreaming early?"

"You asked me last night to wake you up early because you had something to do."

"Oh right I should probably go take care of that. After that, I'll race you completing a trinket."

"It's a deal."

Bode made her way carefully through the crowded pathways towards Willow's strange tent. Bode glanced towards the kitchen tents and continued walking. 'Not sure I want to risk the food this morning. Maybe the girls will have something to eat that isn't rancid. I should probably knock first. Well here goes nothing.' Lexie raised her hand and knocked on the door of the tent.

Willow stopped brushing Lexie's hair when a knock on the door came. "At least I'm dressed this time. You should probably put a robe on."

Lexie grinned and got up out of her chair. She snagged her green silk robe off the floor from where she had tossed it the night before. She slipped the robe on. "Just a second, Bode is that you?"

"Yes, can I come in?"

"Please do."

Bode slipped in and closed the door behind herself. Her eyes glanced to Lexie's sheer silk robe. She giggled softly, partly embarrassed. "You do know your robe is almost see-through."

Lexie grinned, "Yes but it's charmed to stay warm and it's so soft. So what brings you here?"

Bode glanced over at Willow in her purple dress before her eyes drifted back to Lexie. "I thought a lot about coming with you for training. What would my responsibilities be if I did go with you?"

"You would have to attend physical training sessions, academic classes and keep your room in some type of order. After training, you would be paired up with a person that helps you out with the research aspect of the job. Do you have any other questions?"

Bode quickly glanced at Lexie before focusing on Willow. "Slayers get to wear clothes right?"

Willow broke down in a fit of giggles. "Yes, they get to wear clothes."

Lexie grinned, "You don't have to wear them at home if you don't want to though."

Bode blushed and giggled, "I think I'm fine with my clothes."

Willow reached over and grabbed a green crystal off the nightstand. "Just give me a second to contact Dawn to arrange transportation." Willow pushed a thread of magic into the crystal. The crystal glowed for a few seconds and then faded. "That's strange, Dawn must be busy. I'll try again later. In the meantime, why don't you head off to class Bode. Lexie and I will finish some projects that we need to take care of before we head out."

Bodewhin's stomach rumbled as she looked over at the kitchen, "Ah I don't suppose you have anything to eat stashed away."

Lexie grinned and walked over to the counter. Lexie's robe opened slightly as she turned around. Lexie stuffed a strawberry into Bode's now open mouth. Lexie handed her a sandwich and pulled her robe closed. "Turkey and cheese, just try it."

A Blushing Bode chewed the strawberry and hurried out of the tent as fast as she could carrying her sandwich.

Willow watched the door close then chuckled. "You flashed her on purpose. What's with you this trip?"

Lexie sighed, "She's cute, and I was having fun. If you want me to stop I will."

Willow frowned, "I don't think you scared her too much. But please just be careful. I'm not sure how she is going to take the relationships at home."

"I don't know. I just know that she is a pretty girl with a sense of humor. Are you really that anxious to get back to a crying baby?"

"Gabrielle doesn't cry all of the time. Besides, I have everyone to help. Plus I miss Hermione and Dawn."

"And I miss Neville and Rogue but that doesn't mean I don't want to enjoy my vacation. Doesn't mean I can't tease the poor new slayer, or a certain witch."

Willow grinned, "I guess you can tease the new slayer. Tell you what, let me slip out and take some pictures of the various Aes Sedai. Then when I get back, you can have your camera back and take some pictures of the warders in the practice yard. It might be nice to have someone that is able to give some lessons on sword craft now that Adam is gone. I'll get Hermione to enchant the pictures so they can teach and interact. Just a few pictures should be enough to keep you and Bode in lessons for a few years."

Lexie smiled, "I think I'll take a bath, maybe read one of my tech books then maybe work on my fighting katas."

"Just have fun." Willow grinned then she pulled Harry's invisibility cloak around her shoulders and vanished.

Dawn frowned at her laptop before she set it down on the table and glanced over at the hot tub Ginny and Hermione were enjoying themselves in. "Hey when you two are done snogging each other silly maybe you could answer a question for me."

Hermione looked up from kissing Ginny's neck. "What is the problem?"

"Buffy is writing too much, and the dates are wrong on the e-mail."

Ginny frowned and ran her fingers up the back of Hermione's neck, "What about the muggle box?"

Dawn turned the computer to show the e-mail, "The dates are out of sink. It's like weeks are going by to our days."

Hermione leaned her head to the left to let Ginny's fingers trail up her neck and play along her ear. "I guess that would explain why she is writing so much. A little to the left Ginny."

Ginny moves her fingers a touch to the left. "Well is Buffy still having fun?"

"It seems that way. She has been meeting a number of Adam's friends. She just finished a moonlit stroll in Paris. She met some girl named Amanda. I hear she is somewhat of a thief. According to my sister I'm never supposed to meet her, apparently she would be a bad influence. Buffy and Adam are still doing well together so that's encouraging."

Hermione giggled, "Hey Ginny, that's not fair while I'm trying to talk."

"So stop talking and enjoy." Ginny leaned in and kissed Hermione on the neck again.

Dawn chuckled, "How did you get Harry and Faith to watch the children."

Hermione grinned, "I bet him I could beat Ron at chess."

Dawn blinked, "How did you do that?"

"Ginny used a charm I found in the Black family library. It is a fairly brilliant charm that causes visual hallucinations."

Ginny giggled and pulled her mouth away long enough to whisper, "The charmed or hexed person sees a bunch of naked faerie creatures running around. Ron was so distracted he lost."

"I don't think Harry minded looking after the children that much it gave him time to be with his children. Besides he gets to rub the loss into Ron's face for while."

Dawn grinned and closed the laptop. "I'm going to leave you two alone to have fun."

"Just make sure you lock the door on your way out please. I really don't need my brother wandering down here."

"I still can't believe you haven't told him."

"I think he would die of heart failure." Hermione giggled and went back to kissing Ginny.

A sort while later Dawn found herself enjoying tea with Giles. "So how's teaching going?"

"The new watchers all seem remarkably dedicated to learning as much as they can to make sure their slayers stay safe."

"I'm glad you're enjoying your vacation. How long are you planning on staying?"

"I figure maybe a few more weeks before I head back to try to get the council going in the right direction again."

"I'm sure you'll get it going in the right direction. Just remember that you have all of the Scoobies for back up against the council."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I'm just glad that your organization is starting out right."

Dawn grinned, "Willow and I are going to make sure that the slayers stay out of trouble. I should get going though I have some spells to look up for one of Willow's projects."

Giles nodded as Dawn left the kitchen.

Harry sat in a wooden chair and watched the children in the various cradles around the room. "I never would have thought I would have so many children."

Sirius leaned against the picture frame of the painting hanging on the wall. "I'm just impressed that the children have so many different mothers."

Lily slapped Sirius upside the head. "You know he was just helping the girls out. Be a bit respectful about my grandchildren."

Harry blushed, "I try not to think about it. So I hear that you and dad have been playing Quidditch quite a bit to keep from being bored."

"I would love to have a few more people to play against but I'll take what I can get."

Lily scowled, "I just wish I could magic myself into some clothes but it seems that we're stuck looking like our pictures."

James hugged Lily, "I like you just fine dear."

"I'm glad someone thinks it's funny." Lily turned, grinned at James then glanced around the room at the children. "So do you think they will take code names and run around Hogwarts like the Marauders? I can just see all of the little kids off at Hogwarts causing trouble."

Sirius grinned, "As it should be. Though if Severus gives the children crap I'm going to tell Willow to turn him into a rabbit."

Harry grinned, "I plan on making sure that they have been trained as well as possible before they even enter Hogwarts."

James grinned, "I'll help you make sure they break all the records they can."

Sirius chuckled, "I say we make sure they can pull off pranks without getting caught as well."

Faith leaned into the room, "I'm guessing that the teachers of Hogwarts will remember them for a good long time."

Harry looked over at Faith and nodded to her. "So are you enjoying being a mother?"

"It's different than I thought. I think I have already spent more time with Leo than my mother spent with me in my whole life. I just want to make sure I'm a good parent." Faith walked over and picked up Leo. Faith made funny faces at Leo for a while before walking over and sitting in a chair.

Harry turned red and looked away from Faith as she pulled her shirt down to feed Leo.

Faith chuckled at Harry's red face. "Oh please you aren't going to embarrass me by looking at me while I'm feeding him. You looked plenty and used your hands plenty while you helped me make him. So why so shy now?"

Lily pulls Sirius and James off into another picture frame in a different room.

Harry blushed before he turned back to watch Leo feeding, "I was just trying to be polite."

Faith chuckled, "So are you this polite when you're watching Hermione?"

Harry put his head in his hands and muttered, "Probably not."

"Ah well I often find myself staring as well so I don't blame you. So what are you going to tell people when Leo shows up with you in Hogwarts?"

"Probably nothing, I mean Potter happens to be a rather common name. Maybe they will just leave it alone."

"You really believe that?"

"No but I'm hoping that they will accept distant cousin from the colonies."

"You know we call them the States right?"

"Alright I'll try to remember that."

Faith smirked, "You're horrible you know that."

"Why is that?"

"You haven't taken your eyes off my breast since I told you that you could look. You just put your head in your hands so you could try to look without being obvious about it. Do you want me to pull the other one out?"

Harry sputtered and looked up at Faith's face, "If I say yes do I get hit?"

"Nah but you might have to spend the night on the couch when I tell Ginny." Hermione stood leaning against the doorway in a purple silk robe. Even wet Hermione's hair refused to lay flat. She smiled from the doorway.

"Ah great, just what I need."

"I take it you're here to feed the twins?" Faith grinned at Hermione.

"I have a schedule that I try to keep them too."

Faith snorted, "You have a schedule for everything."

"Hey there is nothing wrong with keeping a schedule." Hermione walked to the twins crib and lifted Lenora out. "Ah cutie pie you must be hungry." She glanced down at Lillian still in her crib. "Don't worry munchkin you're next."

Harry watched Hermione walk back to her chair to sit down. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No but Dawn would love it if you gave Rose her bottle. She is trying to get more sleep."

"Sure thing." Harry walked over to the icebox and grabbed a baby bottle marked "Rose's Milk." Harry went over and lifted Rose carefully out of her crib then sat down carefully in his chair. Harry waved his wand over the bottle. "Ah the joys of magic that makes the milk a perfect temperature."

Faith grinned, "And don't forget the magic that keeps the diapers clean."

Hermione slipped her robe open and started feeding Lenora.

Harry concentrated on making sure he was feeding Rose right. "So did you and Ginny have a nice time in the pool?"

Hermione smiled, "Yes I did. Though, I think that she left a few marks."

Faith chuckled, "Oh where?"

"I'm not going to show you."

"Oh, the marks must be in nice places."

Harry shrugged, "I'll be sure to ask her later."

Faith smiled and lifted Leo up. "You are going to be a great demon hunter one day aren't you?"

Leo gurgled.

"See even he knows it."

Harry grinned, relaxed and listened to the banter of his family as he fed Rose.

Willow was working on tossing together tuna and noodles when Lexie walked through the door with Bode in tow. "Decided to invite your friend for dinner?"

Bode curtsied slightly, "Begging your pardon but Bode was saying how good of a cook you are and that the food was fresh. I thought I would take her up on her gracious invitation."

"Well Lexie is right you're always welcome. It's almost ready. So how did your classes go?"

"More of the same, practice this practice that but nothing really of substance. So when do we get to leave?"

Willow finished stirring the tuna and noodles and dished up a plate for Lexie and Bode. "As soon as I can reach Dawn for a ride out of here. Grabbing her own plate of food, she sat down at the kitchen table and started eating.

Bode glanced curiously at the food before taking a hesitant bite. "Tasty, some type of fish?"

"Yes, sort of staple from where I come from for students."

"I wish the cooks could make things that nice for the novices. I just wish the food tasted right again." Bode shuddered.

Lexie worked on gobbling her food down.

Willow frowned, "You would think we starved her with how much she eats."

"Hey, I'm a growing girl still."

"You're taller than most of the men from where I grew up."

Lexie grinned, "Thanks."

Willow scrunches up her face slightly, "Height isn't everything. I mean Buffy is pretty short and still managed to kill a great number of demons."

Willow's green stone flickered from its place on the counter. Dawn's strained voice came from the green stone, "I finally got hold of you Willow, are you about ready to go?"

"Yeah, though you should give us a few minutes to take down the tent."

"You have one minute, hurry up something is interfering with the connection."

Willow grabbed the green stone in her right hand and gestured for Lexie to grab Bode as she rushed outside. The girls left their plates on the table as they hurried outside. Willow gestured towards the tent. It neatly collapsed and folded up as a flickering green portal appeared. Lexie grabbed the tent bag and jumped through the portal. Bode with a worried look jumped after her. Willow jumped through the portal a second before it slipped closed.

Dawn glanced up from the ground at Willow, "I don't like that world. There was some power there that did not want you to leave. I don't think I want to open a portal back there for a long time."

Willow reached down and helped Dawn to her feet. "I'm just glad we made it."

"You had us a little worried there for a while, you should have reported in…" Xander glanced at his watch, "a few hours ago."

"Hey I so tried to report in but someone wasn't at the receiver." Willow turned her resolve face on Dawn. "Is there a reason you weren't answering?"

"Sorry I was crashed out; I was trying to get some sleep after Rose kept me up all of last night."

Xander shrugged, "I was keeping an eye on it last night. I didn't see the crystal flicker at all. Maybe whatever was trying to keep you there was jamming the signal."

Bode glanced around a little nervously. "Ah pardon me but who exactly is everyone?"

"Ah forgive me." Willow points to Xander, "This is Xander Harris, my oldest friend. Well not oldest in age just the one I've had the longest. The other girl is Dawn Summers one of my wives. And you've already met Lexie. Everyone else this is Bodewhin Cauthon the newest collected slayer."

"I'm pleased to meet you all. Please call me Bode."

Xander smiled, "A pleasure to have someone as lovely as you around with such good manners."

Dobby appeared with a small pop. "Ah miss, may I show you to your new room?"

Lexie's eyes went wide, "What is it?"

"Dobby is a house elf miss. I'm a free house elf I work for Master Potter."

"Is he safe?"

"As long as he isn't trying to save your life."

"Alright Dobby please lead me to my room."

Dobby scampered off with Bode following behind.

Xander turned to Willow with a grin, "At least she didn't drop kick him when he appeared."

"Bode seems like a sweet girl. So how long have you been here Xander?"

"I've been working on a bridge between the house and the hotel for a while now. Dawn had some other chores for me as well, House maintenance and such other things. Plus I miss you and Dawn."

Dawn looked over at Willow with a hopeful look, "Can we have a movie night?"

Willow chuckled, "If Xander is up for it I'll even make popcorn."

Xander grinned, "So Evil Dead Two or Night of the Girl Zombies?"

Dawn considered for a few seconds, "I think laughing at the zombies getting shot is more fun. So I'm going with Evil Dead Two."

Xander grinned, "So you coming Lexie?"

"Am I invited?"

Xander shrugged and grinned, "Why not you're part of the group now and it is a group night thing. Unless you don't want to come hang out with a bunch of old people."

Lexie frowned, "You aren't old, Giles is old, and besides you're fun."

Dawn patted Willow's bottom lightly, "You might want to invite Neville though. He was talking to his plants even more than usual the last few days."

Willow ponders, "A few days? It only seemed like two for us."

"I guess time flowed differently than I expected there. I'm just glad I got worried that you didn't contact us. Anyways go grab Neville and we can get this thing going."

Lexie grinned, hiked her silk dress up above her knees and took off at a run.

Xander glanced at the thin silk dress, "She wore that on your trip?"

Willow chuckled, "Not all of the time, that's just the most covered up she was."

Xander shook his head, "I hope Neville understands how lucky he is."

"He knows."

He grinned, "Wait, does that mean you saw her in less."

"She was playing tease the witch, so yeah I saw her in less."

Xander frowned, "Isn't she a bit young for you?"

Willow scowled, "Yes she is a bit young for me, that's why it was only tease the witch."

Dawn chuckled, "You seem sort of disappointed."

Willow smiled, "Maybe a little."

Xander shook his head. "Let's just go watch the movie."

Later that night Willow snuggled into bed with Dawn and Hermione. "So did you ladies miss me?"

Hermione grinned, "Yes I did. I guess I'm going to have to get used to being apart now and then though. It's just that you're wonderfully soft and warm to snuggle with."

Dawn chuckled and leaned her head on Willow's chest, "Yep nice and snuggly."

Willow ran a hand through Dawn's hair. "Hermione did you finish the research I wanted for the pictures?"

Dawn sighed and banged her head softly up and down on Willow's chest. "Can't you not talk about research for one night?"

"You're just bitter because one of the books thought you were a muggle and bit you." Hermione giggled.

"Fine talk about your research but I'm having those damn books de-cursed again."

"I did find a few spells that might be adapted to work. I'm not sure anyone thought seriously of using spells quite that way. So how many pictures did you get?"

"I got six one for each of the types of magic users I had easy access too. It might not be everything possible but it's enough to keep Lexie and Bode training for a good long while."

"You like her don't you?"

"Who?"

"The cute slayer, otherwise known as Lexie."

"I think I do. Not as much as you two but yeah I do."

Dawn turned her head and licked Willow's left nipple. "I guess we will just have to distract you from thinking about our young slayer."

Hermione ran her hand up Willow's leg and inched closer to her crotch. "I think we can distract her enough."

"Home sweet home."


	4. Settling In

Bode glanced for the third time at the small creature that was happily giving her a tour of the house on the way to her room. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess as she followed along. "He seems too happy to be shadow spawn and he hasn't tried to kill me yet. Besides, Willow trusts him. I guess there are bound to be strange things from her world just as there are strange things in mine."

Dobby smiled brightly as he opened a door to one of the spare rooms, "This is your room miss. If there is anything you need please call."

Bode frowned as she looked over the sparsely furnished room. It was larger than her room back in Emond's Field had been. Looking around she saw a shelf with some books already stacked on the shelves. The bed was even neatly made. There was a large chest at the foot of the bed to store things in. She glanced at the writing desk which held a stack of papers and an ink well as well as a quill. A wooden chair was tucked neatly under the desk.

She smiled, "It's more than I expected. What am I going to do with the extra space?"

Dobby nodded, "I know I found that having more than a cupboard to sleep in was strange at first but you get used to it."

Bode wrinkled her nose, "A cupboard?"

Dobby frowned and wrung his hands, "One shouldn't talk bad about past masters but they weren't as kind as Mister Potter."

Bode frowned, "Thank you."

Dobby nodded enthusiastically and vanished with a snap of his fingers.

Bode frowned around the room at the bare white walls. "I guess this is home for a while. I should probably try to get some sleep though." She walked over and pushed at the mattress on the bed. "It's strange but it doesn't feel like straw or even stuffed wool. I wonder what it is. Alright Bode just get some sleep. You can always ask Willow in the morning." She changed into one of her nightgowns and slipped under the covers.

Bode walked into the kitchen the next morning to see a heavily tattooed girl in revealing clothing sitting at the kitchen table. "Ah greetings, I'm sort of new here am I in the wrong place?"

Violet smiled, "You must be Bodewhin. I'm Violet. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Bode smiled, "Same, so can anyone have food or…"

Violet chuckled, "Help yourself; we only really have a sit down meal at dinner or supper time. Mostly that's so Dobby doesn't go insane and cry because he thinks we don't like his cooking."

"Is something wrong with his cooking?"

"No it's very good. It's just that he worries about doing his job well. So did you sleep well?"

Bode nodded, "Yes, it was a very comfortable bed. I did not expect to have a noble's bed though."

Violet chuckled again, "It is sure fit for a noble isn't it?"

Bode found herself relaxing slightly. "So if I can ask how long have you been here?"

Violet smiled, "A bit over a year. I've been training a lot so the time just seemed to fly by."

"So what do you think of Willow?"

"She is an interesting mix of power and humanity. She has more power than anyone I've ever met and yet she is still very nice and sweet."

Bode blushed, "I am not quite sure what to think of her."

Violet grinned as she got up to get Bode a bowl, "Well I'm sure you will have the chance to get to know everyone here better in the coming weeks and months." She handed Bode the extra bowl of oatmeal. "It's not the best breakfast but the real cooks in the house weren't up yet."

Bode tasted the oatmeal and grinned brightly, "It's not rancid."

"Why would we give you rancid food?"

"It's just that where I came from all of the food was being turned rancid."

"That's rather gross."

"Yes it was."

Bode looked up as Dawn walked in. "So how long before I have to start studying?"

Dawn shrugged, "I figured we would give you a day or so to get used to the place before we started on the combat training. It's going to take Willow a while to get your portrait teachers set up anyways. Hopefully it will go well. If not we are going to have to figure out something to do about Lexie."

Bode blushed slightly as she thought back to their first meeting, "If nothing else I should be able to teach her enough to control her power."

Dawn grinned, "Oh I'm sure you will be practicing with her a lot. So how do you like your room?"

"It's bigger than I thought."

"We still have a couple of rooms in the house before we have to start putting people in the inn next door."

"I'm just happy to not have someone poking me awake or having to share a cot with someone."

Dawn chuckled, "Nothing says you can't share your bed with someone but we aren't going to make you."

Bode blushed, "That's good to hear."

"Violet would you take Bode here to visit the gym to watch the sparing practice after she finishes eating?"

Violet nodded, "Of course. It should be fun seeing what she can do."

Dawn chuckled as she left to go spend some time working on her own schoolwork.

Bode sat watching Faith sparring with Wolverine in the gym. "Does she ever stop? She has been fighting with him for a while. She even hit him with her feet a few times."

Violet chuckled, "We practice a great deal without weapons so we know what to do when we can't use them or they don't work."

"What do you mean not work?"

"Well some demons have such a hard skin that a sword would just bounce off."

"So what are you supposed to do in that case?"

"Maybe toss it into a pit of lava or break its neck or something. Knowing how to kill the demons we cannot smash apart is the job of the watchers. Your watcher is your helper; he or she is the person you go to for extra supplies or materials in order to take out the demons we have to fight. They are also typically the ones that file out the paper work, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned."

"So they expect me to learn to fight with a sword?"

"That and a stake for the vampires. But wouldn't you rather have a sword than fight the demons with your bare hands."

Bode nodded, "I think I would."

Willow smiled as Hermione put the finishing touches on the portraits that would be Lexie and Bodewhin's teachers. Willow glanced down at the portrait of Siuan Sanche and frowned. "I'm sure Lexie is going to hate me for picking her."

Siuan Sanche glanced around the small workroom she found herself in. The walls were bare stone. The room was bare other than a filled bookshelf on one wall near a narrow bed and a simple desk and wooden chair. She glanced at the other wall only to find a strange doorway without a door. Looking out of the doorway, she spotted the redhead from the other night. She leapt at the open doorway with a snarl and slammed into a field of force where the doorway was. She bounced back to land painfully on her behind. "What did you do to me?"

Willow sighed, "I didn't do anything to you. You aren't really Siuan Sanche you are a portrait of her. The other Siuan is safely back in camp. I need your help."

"Why would I help the girl that took me prisoner?" Siuan filled herself with the power and tried to grab Willow with a tendril of air. She frowned when the tendril stopped at the doorway. "What have you done? How did you do that?"

Willow sighed, "If I can convince you that you're a portrait, will you listen to me about needing help and why you are here?"

Siuan snarled, "Fine."

Hermione waved her wand at a mirror causing it to float up and hang in the air. Siuan frowned as she saw what looked like a portrait frame reflected back at her. She collapsed on the bed when she felt the whole room lurch as Willow picked up the portrait with one hand and gave it a slight shake. "I know you aren't going to believe me at first but you really are a portrait. I'm hoping that when you notice that you don't need food anymore you will start believing me. I need your help training Lexie in your power. I don't have your type of magic so I can't help her. I'm hoping that you can help her learn what she needs. I'll leave you to think about things for a while."

Siuan scowled as Willow left the room.

Hermione frowned at Willow once they were outside and after the door was shut, "What's the matter?"

"The real her is a bit stubborn, I'm just hoping we are doing the right thing using a portrait of her."

Hermione frowned, "Well we have the other five portraits to help flesh out her education in the power as well. If it's not enough we can always make other portraits to help her."

Willow sighed, "I guess that's all we can do. It's just frustrating that I cannot help you with your magic that much, other than looking up spells for you. I can't even do that for Lexie. The most I could do would be to sneak around and take pictures of more of the magic users in that world."

Hermione hugged Willow, "Don't let it eat you up. We are probably going to have to have a great number of portraits for the different magical slayers."

Willow nodded, "I know it's just frustrating."

Bode glanced over the titles on her bookshelf. Most of them were fantasy novels but a few seemed to be technical books on various different subjects. She smiled as she picked up a book on blacksmithing. "I guess that might be something I could learn to do. They always said I had talent at working with earth. The slayers don't have anyone that can make decent blades. I think found out something that I could help with." She curled up on her bed with the book on blacksmithing.

Lexie frowned as she sat in front of the portrait of Siuan.

Siuan looked out at her new student and sighed. "You must work harder, you have been coming here for several weeks now and you still have trouble concentrating on what you're doing. With your strength if you don't learn control you are going to destroy something important, like this house."

Lexie sighed, "I'm trying it's not as easy as you make it sound."

"Just concentrate on a rose flower opening."

Lexie sighed and focused on opening herself to her power and moving the small stone on the table. She sighed when the rock burst into flame after the fifth attempt to move it. She reached out with her magic, pulled the flames from the rock into herself and dispersed them harmlessly into the stone table.

Siuan gasped in shock, "You idiot you can't do that. Wool headed fool. Are you trying to burn yourself to a cinder?"

Lexie frowned over at Siuan's portrait, "What are you talking about?"

Siuan frowned as she noticed that Lexie didn't appear to be in any pain. "How, that's impossible."

Lexie frowned, "What's impossible?"

"You should be burned all over from doing that. No female can pull the fire into themselves without getting burned."

Lexie scowled, "So it's not enough that you insult my intelligence all day but now you are saying I'm not a girl? What the hell is wrong with you, you fucked up portrait from hell!" She stormed from the room.

Siuan was left looking at the charred and partially melted stone as her thoughts ran around in circles, "What she did was impossible, but I saw it. It's just not possible but she used Saidar. I could see her use the power, it was no different from how some other idiots have burned themselves in the past. Yet she did not have a mark on her. Such power outside the tower makes me afraid but to not train her would be worse. Maybe I can still convince her to join the tower. I just wish I knew how she could do the impossible."

Faith watched Wolverine stagger into the kitchen. His various bruises were fading fast as he collapsed into a chair and reached for a beer. Faith grinned at him, "Tough workout?"

He scowled, "I'm done sparing her after she works on her magic. If her hitting me hard enough to break concrete wasn't enough, she then broke every punching bag we had.

Bode knocked on Lexie's door, "Can I come in?"

Lexie sighed, "Fine come in if you want."

Bode stepped into the room and looked around briefly before focusing on Lexie sitting on her bed crunched up. "So I heard that you had some issues with Siuan today."

"Stupid old hag said I wasn't a girl."

Bode sighed, "What exactly happened?"

Lexie sniffled, "I was trying to move a stupid rock when I got angry and it burst into flames. So I put the stupid flame out and she freaked out."

Bode frowned and sat on the edge of the bed, "Why did that frighten her?"

"How the hell should I know? I just reached out and pulled the fire in and put it into the stone table to disperse the heat."

Bode winced, "So she freaked out because you got burned?"

"Why would I get burned from doing that?"

Bode blinked in shock, "Because that's what normally happens when a girl uses magic to draw in flame."

Lexie sighed, "So I'm a freak now?"

Bode frowned, "A what?"

"Odd, strange, or different."

"I guess, but hey it's a neat talent. So how is the learning going with the other portraits?"

"Better than dealing with the grouchy old hag."

"Just give it a little time; I think at some point she will realize that it's just a talent or something of that nature and stop pressing you about it."

Lexie nodded, "It's just so frustrating. I've never had issues learning things before."

Bode frowned, "You're joking right you get most things in half the time it normally takes and you consider yourself slow just because you don't have a good reference point?"

"So can you help me?"

"I guess I can try."

"Thank you."


	5. family

Willow beamed at Bode over the kitchen table, "You seem to be settling in. So how are your training sessions with Lexie going?"

Bode blushed slightly, "Other than accidentally walking into her room early yesterday and catching her and Rogue in bed, it's been going well."

Willow giggled, "So did you like what you saw?"

Bode's face turned completely red. "Not the point. Anyways she is doing much better with her control. It's only a matter of practice and learning new skills now."

"You did enjoy it. I'll have to tell her."

Bode put her head in her hands. "I don't know what to do. I never used to think about having a pillow friend. I heard stories about novices having them but you're never really sure how true the stories were. I'm still trying to get used to her and Dawn running around with little to no clothes on."

"I don't know. The no clothes thing on them sort of grows on you after a while. The idea of me running around in front of people without clothes is a bit scary still. As for Lexie, just relax and if something develops then something develops. She is a sweet girl even if Logan would disagree right now. "

Bode grinned, "She hasn't given him a bruise in weeks."

"I'm glad to hear that she is doing better dealing with her magic teachers. I'm also glad she is getting a handle on her magic."

"It's nice having someone to practice with and talk to."

"The fact that she is a cutie has nothing to do with it?"

"Taunting me isn't going to get you in her pants, if that's what you want why don't you work on that?"

Willow blushed and looked down at her books on the table. "Maybe I should get back to working on the research for the spell to step into the portraits."

"I'm not sure I want to be able to step into the portraits. I might have to face Siuan on her own terms."

"Nothing says you have to step into that portrait." Willow flipped her book open and started taking more notes.

"True." Bode strolled out of the kitchen and headed for Lexie's room.

Lexie frowned at the knocking sound coming from her door. "Yes?"

Bode fidgeted, "Can I come in?"

Lexie grinned and pulled her robe closed, "I don't know, can you?"

Bode sighed, "I guess I should be used to that by now. May I come in?"

Lexie grinned and spun around in her chair to face the door, "Come in."

Bode stepped cautiously into the room and sighed in relief and slight disappointment when she noticed that Lexie was covered by the fluffy red robe.

Lexie grinned, "At least you knocked this time. You rushed out so fast yesterday that you didn't even say what you wanted."

Bode blushed, "I just wanted to say sorry for walking in on you."

"Thanks for the apology. Can I ask a question and get an honest answer?"

Bode nodded slightly, "I guess."

"Do you think I'm cute?"

Bode fidgeted, "Yes but not in the same way as you think Rogue is cute. I think you scare me a bit too much with all of your techno-magic."

Lexie glanced around at the numerous computers filling her room. "How many times do I have to tell you and Neville that they aren't magic?"

"On one level I know they aren't but that doesn't mean I understand them. They seem like a strange type of magic to me that I'll never quite understand. This whole place seems like that at times."

Lexie smiled slightly, "You think it is any easier learning that not only does magic exist but that I'm able to wield it? Or that demons and creatures of nightmare are real? Or that I'm supposed to as a twelve almost thirteen year old kid go out and kill said demons?"

"I'm not a big fan of charging into battle fists flying either. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the idea of going out and fighting the undead. My first instinct when it comes to vampires is to weave air to hold them still then use a fire weave to burn them to a crisp. I don't care that Faith thinks it's unsportsmanlike behavior. It works and it doesn't get me killed."

"I guess that's another reason to work on my magic."

"So do you want to get back to practicing?"

"I guess I'll have to try harder."

"Just don't burn any more rocks."

"Ah sure you burn one rock and you get labeled for life."

"Just concentrate on your mental rose."

Lexie sighed and worked on concentrating on her black rose.

The weeks and months flew by for Lexie as she worked on her magic. It had taken some careful spells on Willow's part as well as some straight out lying to convince the portraits to teach Bodewhin and Lexie more than just novice level magic.

Lexie sat at her desk frowning down at her journal. She softly read back what she had written, "Almost three years I've lived here and written in you. You helped me when Rogue had to go back to help with Jean and when I could hardly teach the new slayers because I was too worried about her not coming back. You were there when she did come back only a little worse for wear. I'm not sure what to write on the last page of my journal. I think I'll settle for noting that I haven't gotten any taller in the last few weeks. Not that being taller than Harry isn't nice but it's still a bit strange to be one of the tallest slayers at six foot, two and a half inches. Heck the only one that beats me is Ron and just barely. I guess I should talk about the munchkins but that would take up more paper than I have left in this journal. The first batch is all doing well. They are in their terrible twos and doing their best to drive their parents up the wall. The second batch is celebrating their first birthday which is where I should be right now. Though, with only Ginny and Chloe having children this time around, I think the insanity level is less than with the first group."

Lexie smiled and put her journal on top of the others in her desk drawer. Grinning she picked up her digital camera, checked to make sure that her dress was straight and headed back to the party.

Harry glanced around the party with a smile on his face. His thoughts wandered a touch as he looked around at his family. 'They may not be perfect but they are perfect to me. My little Lilyanne Potter with her cute red baby curls is perfect to me. She will grow up to be the perfect witch just like her mother.' He chuckled as Ginny wiped cake from Lilyanne's mouth.

Ginny grinned up at Harry from her seat. "You just watch it buddy, next time you can wash off her attempts at eating cake."

Hermione smiled, "Just be happy that you don't have twins. I think mine are as bad as Fred and George. They get into everything."

Willow laughed, "That's because they are two. Molly says it's normal at that age. On the other hand, Gabrielle is a perfect little angel."

Neville snorted, "Yeah right, you should see her attempts to help in the garden. Though I'm sure at some point she will get the hang of it. Right now she just likes to get messy and pull up what she calls weeds."

Willow sighed, "Sorry about that."

Neville chuckled, "I've made sure the rare and or dangerous plants are in places she can't get."

Willow grinned, "Thanks I appreciate that."

Neville grinned as Lexie walked in through the doors. "Nothing more beautiful is there?"

"No comment." Willow grinned and walked off towards Clark and Chloe.

Clark looked up as Willow walked over, "Enjoying the party?"

Willow smiled, "Yeah it's nice to see you two and the baby you haven't been around much lately. So where is Lana anyways?"

"She is showing off Raisa. I'm just glad she looks human."

Willow grinned, "You shouldn't say that about Lana." She laughed at the look on Clarks face. "Oh please, you had that one coming. Honestly did you expect your daughter to not look human? You look pretty human to me."

Chloe chuckled, "Ten fingers, ten toes and such, so that's good. At least Clark's parents relaxed a bit after she was born. They shifted into grandparent mode rather than overprotective parent mode."

Clark nodded, "I'm just glad that I'm being paid to do research for Chloe's demon fighting, otherwise taking care of the baby would be a lot harder."

Chloe shrugged, "I've got my job at the paper so we would get by but it's nice to get paid for hunting demons as well. So how is the globetrotting going?"

"Not so bad I guess. It's sort of nice to have patched things up with Giles. He sends us an e-mail and we take a portal to the area to back up the local slayer or to fill in where there isn't a slayer. It gives the girls some practice and lets Faith have fun now and then."

"I almost feel bad for the demons."

"Why should you feel bad for the demons?"

"Because you are sending Faith after them for starters and the rest of the girls just add insult to injury."

"It keeps the girls from running up the wall. Besides, the new girls need the practice."

"How's that going anyways?"

Willow sighed, "Most of the people we collect from the other worlds are pretty happy staying in their own worlds. We set up rooms in the hotel for them."

Clark frowned, "So how come the first girls you picked up were different?"

"I'm not sure maybe different personalities or maybe they were just affected more by the spell for some reason. I'm not really going to worry about it. They are a very good team of slayers."

Chloe smiled over at Clark, "It's all about the support staff."

Lana walked over carrying Raisa, "I'm glad you think so, she needs a diaper change."

Clark sighed and took his daughter from Lana. "Fine, I'll be right back."

Willow chuckled as Clark walked over to a table to change Raisa. She turned to look at Lana. "So are you enjoying yourself?"

Lana grinned, "Yeah the Talon is doing well. It's also nice to have a little munchkin to watch over. It's really nice that at the end of the day I can give her back to Chloe."

Chloe grinned at Clark's back, "Or for a diaper change."

"Yep, that too."

"So have you given any thought to coming and visiting more?"

"I don't know Chloe running this place keeps me pretty busy but I'll try. It might be nice to have a break from here and do some normal things like watch movies in a theater and shop for clothes. I wouldn't mind seeing Aunt Martha and Uncle John again. So I guess we can do that."

Clark smiled and held his squirming daughter out to Chloe, "I think it's your turn."

Dawn sat watching the people party as Spike walked up behind her, "So Niblet how's the party?"

Dawn shrugged, "It's a party, lots of good food and friends."

"And yet you are sitting over here all by yourself."

"I'm just thinking about Buffy's last e-mail."

Spike jumped over the back of the couch with a flourish of his coat and sat down next to Dawn. "So what did little Miss Muffin have to say?"

"Just that she had been traveling with Adam a lot and ran into some of his friends. They ran into a few head hunters though."

"Oh how did that go?"

"How do you expect? I mean slayer strength against people only slightly stronger than humans?"

"She didn't say much about it, but something spooked her about the encounter."

Spike shrugged, "At some point you are going to have to go for a visit."

"Don't you mean us?"

Spike shrugged, "Bloody right, we can straighten her out in no time."

"I don't know. I just worry about her is all."

"Buffy is tough enough, besides I think she needed a break from the demons anyways."

"So how is Illyria doing?"

"When she is here she spends a lot of time up in Neville's garden talking to the plants. It seems like we are gone more than we are here these days. She has Wesley and me running around different dimensions slaughtering problem demons."

"You can't tell me you aren't having fun Spike."

"Oh hell no, I'm having a blast. Watching her work is a delight. I mean just last week she ripped the head off a Ga'ran demon, an armored to the hilt eight foot tall fucking demon. She then tossed the head at the next leader and told him that she would beat him to death with his own demonic spleen if they didn't stop raiding the village they had been attacking. I'm not even sure it has the demon equivalent of a spleen but it was pretty funny watching the demons agree to not attack the town."

Dawn winced slightly, "I'm glad she is adapting."

Spike chuckled, "I'm not sure I would use that word around her but yes she is doing better. Fred and her have worked out most of their issues."

"And you just like smashing things with your fists."

"Hey it's a time honored tradition. Besides I get to smoke in the demon worlds."

"What don't tell me you are scared of what Willow would do to you?"

"She said she would turn me into a kitten and give me to Clem if she caught me smoking in the house or on the deck. I'm pretty sure Clem eats kittens."

Dawn grinned, "Wimp."

"Hey, if you weren't her wife you would be scared of her too."

"And as such, be careful what you say about her."

Spike grinned, "I'm off to find some blood."

Violet sat with Bode and watched the party, "So does it make you want a family?"

Bode chuckled, "Only for a few minutes then I remember what a mess they make."

Violet chuckled and rested her head on Bode's lap. "Remind me to not volunteer for an extra duty shift the night before the next party."

Bode ran her fingers through Violet's long hair, "Next time I'll remind you."

A few days after the party Willow looked up from her spell books. "I think I finally got it." She rushed off to find Hermione.

Hermione looked up from the book she was reading as an excited Willow ran into the room. Willow took a deep breath, "I think I got the portrait spell to work. I want to test it. You'll help right?"

Hermione grinned, "You sure you've been working on that for a long time now."

"Hey, it's not my fault I kept getting distracted by work and such things. So will you help me test it?"

Hermione smiled, "Of course I will. I think we should try one of the portraits that doesn't have people in it first through."

Willow grinned, as she ran over toward the painting of the Quidditch pitch. Hermione frowned at the long string of Latin words that came out of Willow's mouth as well as the sparkles that danced from her fingers to the painting.

Willow smiled slightly and sat down on the couch when the sparkles stopped. "I think that should be everything. I'm not sure it worked though."

Hermione took a pillow and tossed it at the painting. The whole image rippled a touch as the pillow crossed the threshold of the painting and came to rest on the ground in the painting. "Looks like it worked to me."

Willow stood unsteadily and walked over to put her hand into the painting. "It's slightly cool to the touch."

Hermione frowned, "Shouldn't we test it some more?"

Willow grinned and stepped into the painting. She looked around at the vivid landscape. "I think it worked."

Hermione glared at Willow in the painting. "So can you get back?"

Willow stepped back out of the painting looking none the worse for wear. "See, I finally did it."

Hermione frowned at the sparkles sinking into the portrait, "So was it supposed to permanently enchant the painting?"

Willow frowned, "Damn it, just once can't a new spell work perfectly?"

Hermione chuckled, "I don't think it would be very Willow like if something interesting didn't happen with your spells."

"You're going to tell Xander I messed up the spell aren't you."

"Hey, what are friends for."

"Figures, so should we tell Harry or test some more?"

"I'll stay and test things a bit more why don't you get Harry."

Willow grinned and ran off to find Harry.

Hermione looked around from the inside of the portrait. "This is fascinating and amazing." She bent down and picked a blade of grass. "I can even smell the grass."

Lily stepped into the portrait from hers. She blinked as she saw Hermione standing in the field. "You got it working."

Hermione smiled, "Yeah how did you know?"

"I didn't, I just come here now and then to stretch and to walk around."

"Willow went to grab Harry."

"I should probably grab Sirius and James."

Hermione nodded, "I'm sure he would love the chance to give them both hugs."

Lily stepped out of the painting and went to gather the others.

Willow lead Harry toward the painting. "Just step into the painting."

Harry frowned, "This had better not be some type of trick."

Willow grinned, "Hey I'm not the twins."

Harry carefully put a hand against the painting and pushed. His hand slipped into the painting before he quickly pulled it back out and looked at it for any changes. "Wicked."

"Just get in there."

Harry stepped into the painting and looked around.

Lily stepped back into the painting from the edge with Sirius and James in tow. She took one look at Harry, ran and crushed him in a bear hug clothes or no clothes.

"Mom, I need to breathe." Lily reluctantly released him before reaching up and grabbing him by the shoulders and looking at his face. "It's just not the same across the room."

Harry looked down at Lily and embarrassed wrenched his eyes off his mother's chest and back to her eyes.

James chuckled and walked over to pull them both into a hug. "Damn you've grown up since the last time I got to hug you."

Sirius chuckled, "He really is the spitting image of you James. Especially now, that his eyesight is fixed."

A rather embarrassed Harry broke down as tears of joy ran off his face. "It's so good to be able to hug you."

Sirius smiled at Willow, "Thanks Willow for never giving up." He sauntered over and added his own bear hug to the group.

Hermione grinned and walked over to lean against Willow. "You know it's times like this that make everything worth it."

"I think you're right. Willow smiled, leaned over and kissed her.

Twenty minutes later the group found themselves being pulled into an impromptu Quidditch game. Lily watched from her spot on a blanket as she balanced Lilyanne on her knee. "Don't think I'll ever get tired of playing with my grand children."

Willow grinned, "I'm glad you think that. So would you want to run their school?"

Lily frowned, "I was never a teacher."

"Yeah but it's not like you have much else to do besides you were raised muggle. You have a better grasp of school than the wizard born have. Look we just need someone that can teach them the basics. We have fighting teachers galore and a computer teacher. Violet works as an arts and crafts type person. Bode would be a good metal shop teacher but that's years down the road. We need someone to teach the basics. I would but I'm still running around finding slayers. I promise I'd help but I can't be the main teacher."

"That doesn't sound too bad; I know it would help with the boredom. I'll give it a try."

Willow grinned, "Great, so who do you think will win?"

"It's hard to say, I'm not sure it matters who wins. Just that they are getting the chance to play is probably enough."

"Do you honestly believe that?"

"No but it sounds better than my husband is a competitive jerk that couldn't lose on purpose to save the world." She grinned.

"I guess it does. Besides the old people have a better keeper."

Lily frowned as she caught Willow checking her out again, "So I don't suppose you have any way to fix the no clothes issue?"

Willow grinned, "Nope sorry, I haven't come up with anything yet."

Lily raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "Have you even worked on it at all?"

"Of course but I think the spell we used to transfer you from the photo to the portrait fixed your image. On the plus side you aren't going to ever look any older."

Lily nodded, "I guess I have that in common with Harry. Though I'm not sure it was the best way to insure him a chance to win. I do understand why he did what he did though. But you know he will have to watch his family die at some point."

Willow sighed, "I know. That part of it sort of sucks."

Lily smiled down at Lilyanne. "At least she seems happy."

"It's true."

Lily glanced up at the game, "You know the boys are never going to want to stop playing now."

Hermione grinned, "I'll work out a schedule. I'm sure we can strike a nice balance between studying and fun. Though, I suggest coming up with some games that are actually practice."

Willow frowned, "Like what?"

"Well have you ever played freeze tag?"

"When I was a kid played it some at school."

"Well stunners work nicely to freeze people."

"And the other people could wake them up."

Lily frowned, "Not sure it's a good idea to stun the children that much but some type of spell to hold them in place would be good. If we offered points and rewards for not getting hit it would help with the combat training."

Hermione frowned, "I'm not sure I like the idea of combat training for the kids but they are going to be in battle at some point in their lives. I would rather they know the right hex to use on the Slytherins when it comes up."

Willow frowned, "Don't you mean if?"

"No, I mean when. Honestly some of their last names are Potter and my girls are named Granger. Draco and his idiot cronies aren't going to leave well enough alone."

"In that case, I want to make sure that they are going to be able to fight as well as we can teach them."

Lily grinned, "I could almost feel sorry for the Slytherins."

Sirius screamed as he flew past, "No mercy on the Slytherins!"

"Some things never change."

Willow nodded, "I'll get started on their wands. It might take a while but I think five is a much better age than eleven to give them magic lessons. Plus training them would probably help with the accidental magic use. So what do you think of starting them on limited wands first?"

Lily shook her head, "I'm not sure it's ever been done, though it's not a bad idea. I guess we will have to see how well it works."

Author's note: Trying to speed things along in prep for the children and gang going back to Hogwarts for their sixth year. Hopefully in a few chapters I'll get there.


	6. Strange powers

Gabrielle ran around the side of the barn and pressed herself against the outside wall. She listened intently for any sound of her pursuers, no matter how faint. She heard a faint whisper from near her left foot. "Please don't step on me."

Gabrielle glanced down at her bare feet and the small snake curled up in the grass a few inches away. "Not stepping on you."

"Thank you." The snake hissed quietly.

Gabrielle glanced around the twilight lit area, nodded to the snake then ran toward a tree she could only barely make out. She took a running leap, reached for the lowest branch and swung herself up. She scrambled up to the next highest branch before huddling quietly against the trunk of the tree. She scrunched up her little face and concentrated on holding still and not being seen. She listened as her pursuers ran under the tree and off into the darkness. She leaned against the tree and whispered, "Thank you for holding me." She turned and slipped out of the tree. She landed lightly in a crouch and jumped in fright as a hand clamped onto her shoulder.

Lexie grinned as her hand caused a dust covered Gabrielle to jump in fright. She glanced down at the girl's dirty cut off jeans and stained white t-shirt. "I think it's time you washed your hands and maybe the rest of you."

"Did I win?" Gabrielle smiled up at Lexie.

Lexie chuckled, "Yeah, the twins found Rose first."

"Where was she?"

"She was hiding under some boxes."

"She hid there last time."

Lexie frowned as she looked up at the old tree and wondered how little Gabrielle had climbed into it or how the twins had missed seeing the little girl huddling in its bare branches. Lexie chuckled as the twins chased Leo into the farmhouse.

Willow grinned as the dirty children ran through the hallway on the way toward the bathroom. She smiled at her aunt Martha. "Thank you for inviting us."

Martha smiled a warm-hearted smile, "Nonsense it's been too long since you've been here and the children have never been here before. I think they like running around. I know Clark used to." She glanced out from the kitchen into the living room. "Lexie seems pretty good with the children."

Willow grinned, "She is good with them. She didn't get to have much of a childhood, so I think she is taking advantage of it while she can. I know I would never get anything done if it wasn't for Lexie and the rest of the gang helping what the kids."

Lillian frowned at Gabrielle, "Where were you?"

Gabrielle grinned, "Hiding."

Lenora frowned, "Where, we looked."

Gabrielle grinned, "Not telling."

Lillian sighed, "Next time."

Lexie poked her head into the bathroom, "It's time for dinner so I hope all of your hands are washed." She chuckled as the group of dirty children held up five sets of clean hands. "Alright rag muffins, get to the dinner table."

Jonathan smiled as he set his napkin down, "Another great dinner."

Willow glanced at the group of children then back at Jonathan and Martha, "Are you sure you don't mind watching the kids for the night?"

Martha smiled, "Go have fun. It's Valentine's Day. I know that Dawn and Hermione had things to do but that doesn't mean you still can't have a good time at the theater."

Chloe grinned, "I'll make sure that they have a good time. Raisa's bottle is in the fridge. Are you sure you don't mind?"

Martha smiled, "I'm sure we will do fine, now go have fun."

Willow smiled and walked outside with her friends. She glanced at Chloe's car. "I suppose you want the front seat don't you?"

Chloe grinned, "I'm driving, so yeah."

Clark quickly said, "Shotgun."

Willow sighed and got in the back of the car. Lexie slid into the seat next to her. "Are we there yet?"

Willow chuckled, "Dawn told you to say that didn't she?"

"Yeah, what do you expect though? She is stuck in another dimension on Valentine's Day doing council work that you had promised Giles you would do."

Willow frowned and looked at Lexie, "I didn't mean to scare them. How was I supposed to know that world increased certain types of magic?"

"You blew a hole clean through the demon you were supposed to be negotiating a contract with."

"I was just trying to get his attention."

Lexie groaned, "On second thought, can we please can the shop talk for once? I want to watch the movie in peace and then go for a nice walk before going back to baby sitting duty. Maybe something will even be stupid enough to jump us."

Willow shrugged, "Probably not, but who knows, this is Smallville."

Gabrielle frowned "When mom get home?"

Martha smiled and looked over at the clock that read nine o'clock. "Way past your bed time. So shoo and get to bed."

Gabrielle sighed and crawled into the large bed that already held her siblings. "Bedtime story please."

Lillian and Lenora nodded from their curled up position. "Yes please."

"I'll tell you a story from when Clark was a little boy."

Leo grinned, "Was he brave?"

"He was very brave. It started when he got lost in the woods."

Rose looked up nervously, "Is it scary?"

Gabrielle rolled her little eyes, "He still alive."

Martha chuckled, "That he is. It was a cloudy day that day."

Gabrielle closed her eyes to listen to the story.

Willow glanced over at the girl resting against her. "Lexie, you still awake?" Most of the rest of the people had left not waiting for the credits to finish.

Lexie frowned and blinked a few times as she came awake. "Yeah, I guess so. I was just a little tired chasing after the children today."

Willow grinned, "So, how were they?"

"They were enjoying being able to run around in something other than a portrait. Though Gabrielle kept picking at her clothes."

Willow shrugged, "She needs to get used to them even if she gets to run around without them at home."

Lexie grinned, "I know that, doesn't mean she likes it."

Chloe chuckled, "I still remember how red Clark's face was when he walked into the kitchen and saw Dawn without her clothes for the first time."

"I wasn't expecting it. I'm better now than I was."

Willow snickered, "It took some getting used too."

Lexie grinned, "Not that I'm not enjoying the conversation but can we go slay something? I haven't gotten to do any slayage in at least a week."

Willow grinned, "We can go see if we can find you a vampire or something."

Frank sat on a worn stone bench watching a young girl with pigtails strolling through the old park. He grinned as he thought to himself. 'It's a little girl out for a run. I know I should be careful because slayers are all over now but how often is such a great dinner dropped in your lap. This should be a snap. I might even have time to have some fun with her first.'

Frank grinned as he stood up to his full height of six feet and grabbed the girl's arm as she passed by. "You know little girls shouldn't be walking around at night."

The girl turned and looked fearfully up at the man's face. "Why?"

The man's face shifted into game face. "Because things like me eat little girls like you."

As she looked up at the man, her fearful look turned into a smile, "Are you sure?"

To say this was not going how Frank thought it would was an understatement. His day was further ruined when the girl twisted her hand out of his grasp. Before he realized he should run he was tossed like a rag doll twenty feet to slam into the playground's slide. Not the brightest bulb around he growled at the girl, "Slayer, you'll pay for that."

She smiled, "Really? Are you sure that I'm a slayer? Maybe I'm a demon. Or perhaps, I'm something else."

The vampire pulled himself off the ground. "I'll make you bleed little girl."

The Lexie grinned as the illusion faded revealing her normal six foot two frame. "Well, if you want to see how well you do?"

The vampire looked around, "Where is your damn watcher girl? I know how these things work."

"You wouldn't like meeting him. He gets a touch defensive about me being out alone at night."

"When I'm done with you girl not even your mother would love you."

Lexie frowned, "You aren't very nice are you?"

"I'm a vampire, what do you expect?"

"Dust."

Frank had only a second to frown as his heart was ripped out of his chest with magic. Lexie watched the dust settle to the ground.

Willow peeked her head out from behind the bushes. "Let's see, on dusting the vampire you get an A plus. On your illusion to look like acceptable food, you receive a solid B. There are things other than vampires that could cause a little girl problems. I am not sure what grade the quips get. Just remember to not toy with the vampires."

"I know they are dangerous. I was testing out some ideas."

"I was going to say tacky." Willow shuddered as her eyes filled with a painful memory. "Just remember that no matter how much magic you have bullets shot from a direction you don't expect will still kill you."

"I suddenly don't feel very much like slaying, can we go home?"

"As soon as we collect the children."

Dawn sighed as she pulled her demon goo soaked clothes off and tossed them into the waste bin. She glanced over at Violet as she did the same thing. "Not a word."

Violet grinned, "At least we solved the problem with the worst of the demon raiders."

"It would have gone better if you hadn't insulted their tribal elders."

"How was I supposed to know that aloha meant die a thousand unclean deaths in their language?"

Dawn shrugged, "You should have just let me do the talking from the start."

"I would have had their stupid culture let a non warrior address their council."

Dawn shrugged, "I don't care anymore write it up and get a hot shower."

Violet grinned, "You're just bitter about the warrior part."

Dawn muttered as she walked out of the portal room. "I should have let Willow toast them all."

Hermione glanced up at a freshly showered Dawn, "Well how did the mission go?"

Dawn sighed, "It could have went better. No injuries on our part. In some ways, them not considering me a warrior helped."

"How did that help?"

"It helped because after seeing me fight, they started getting worried about what type of damage one of my world's warriors could do."

Hermione chuckled slightly, "More productive than trying to figure out a way to make a limited wand for the children."

Dawn shrugged, "You have at least another year before you have to worry about it. Almost two years in fact."

Hermione harrumphed, "Yes well, I just wanted to get an early start on it."

Dawn smiled and tossed her towel onto the clothes bin. "It's Valentine's day come to bed and stop worrying about your projects for a while."

Hermione smiled and slipped out of her robe before tackling Dawn onto the bed. "I was hoping you would ask."


	7. snake tongue

Lexie glanced up as she heard her door swing open. A small smile lit her face as the almost five-year-old Gabrielle came running in. Gabrielle looked around frantically for a hiding place. "Help me Lexie, please." Lexie grinned, "What's the matter now?"

Gabrielle closed the door behind her, "The twins said I was cheating. They said they were going to tickle me till I peed my pants."

Lexie frowned, "First, how were you cheating? Second you know you aren't wearing any pants so they can't really make you pee in them."

"I wasn't cheating." Gabrielle shifted her feet sort of guilty like.

Lexie grinned, "Sure, so what game were you playing and how did they say you were cheating?"

"Hide and seek. I was just using my senses to detect their auras. That's not really cheating is it?"

"Being that they can't sense you, I would have to say that it's cheating."

"They called it cheating when they found out I could turn invisible too."

She chuckled, "You think?"

"They haven't let me hide since that time at Clark's."

"Hide me till they calm down."

"I guess, go hide in the bathroom." She grinned as she watched Gabrielle's bare behind as it disappeared into the bathroom.

Lexie had just barely gotten back to work on her latest computer project when knocking came from the door. "It's open."

The door opened and Lillian and Lenora stalked in. Lillian brushed her brushy brown hair out of her eyes with her right hand. "Have you seen Gabrielle? We want to talk to her."

"Oh, what about?"

Lenora frowned slightly as she looked around the room, "She was cheating."

"What was she cheating at?"

"She was cheating at hide and seek."

"So she was peeking while counting?"

Lillian grumbled, "She was using magic."

Lexie frowned, "So how is that cheating?"

"We can't use magic to find her, it's not fair."

"Did you ever tell her that she couldn't use magic?"

Lenora frowned, "I would have, if I'd known she could."

"Look, I know it's not fair but maybe you should think up some type of game where her magic is useful."

"Why? We can't we use magic yet."

Lexie shrugged, "You have done a few things with it."

"Not on purpose. It's not fair."

"I know, if it makes you feel better she often wishes that she had a twin to share things with."

Lenora looked at Lillian, "I guess we are just lucky."

Lillian frowned, "Are you sure you haven't seen her?"

Lexie chuckled, "I'm sure she will turn up. You should get Rogue to help you write up a new game of some type."

Lillian and Lenora nodded, "Okay."

She grinned as they left. Lexie used a small thread of her magic to shut and lock the door. She waited for a few minutes until she was sure the twins weren't lurking at her door. "You can come out now."

Gabrielle peeked her red haired head around the door and looked at Lexie. "Is it safe?"

"Yeah, though you might want to avoid them for a few days while they calm down."

"Okay." She snuck out of the bathroom.

"So how long have you been cheating?"

"Hey, they never said I couldn't use magic."

"So how come you didn't tell them about it?"

Gabrielle looked down at her feet.

"That's what I thought. Have you been using any other magic without telling us?"

Gabrielle frowned, "I can talk to snakes, does that count?"

Lexie frowned, "I would think that counted, you should probably talk to your father about that."

"Why dad?"

"Because, I'm guessing that's where you got that particular ability as he can talk to snakes as well."

"So the twins can probably talk to snakes as well?"

"I'm not sure but most likely."

Gabrielle smiled, "That's great."

"Why?"

"It's something I can share with them."

"That might be a good peace offering. I'll tell your mother about the magic use and see about getting you some training with it."

Gabrielle's face brightens, "Thank you."

With a wave of her hand, the door unlocked and swung open.

Gabrielle poked her head into the hall and glanced around before running down the hall.

Lexie sighed and gestured to her cell phone. The phone flew into her hand as she leaned back in her chair. She pushed the button for Willow and waited until she picked up. "Willow we have a slight problem, Gaby can talk to snakes."

"Oh, I'll be right there."

Lexie sighed as she closed the phone. She sat the phone on her desk before jumping onto her bed. "This isn't going to go well."

A short while later Willow and Harry walked in to find Lexie lying sans clothes on her bed. Willow frowned as they walked over to stand by the bed, "So how did you hear she could talk to snakes?"

"Well she came in here to hide from Lillian and Lenora because they caught her cheating at hide and seek."

Harry was trying to look around the room but his eyes kept slipping back to Lexie's chest and slightly parted legs.

Willow frowned, "How was she cheating?"

Lexie shrugged, "How would you cheat if you were playing against people with magic?"

"I guess I would try to sense them and see if I could use their magic to find them."

"I'm guessing that was what she was doing. It appears that she can also use her magic to turn invisible."

Willow turned even paler than normal and started to babble, "But we pay attention to her, how can she feel unloved? Oh, my goddess have I been that bad of a mother?"

Lexie frowned in confusion, "Ah, what? I don't think so, I just think that's just one of her magical powers."

"Oh, sorry back in Sunnydale there was a girl that vanished because no one noticed her. I guess I was just a little nervous."

Lexie waved her toes at Harry, "Enjoying the view Harry?"

Harry blushed, "Sorry, I was drifting. I'm just a touch worried that at least one of the children can talk to snakes."

Lexie nodded, "You're a bit worried about the connection to Voldemort aren't you?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah well, wouldn't you be?"

Willow dragged her eyes off Lexie and back to Harry, "Honestly Harry I took care of the taint left by that psychopath's curse. I'm not that surprised that the girls have some of your abilities. But if it will make you feel better I can check them all for dark magic."

"It would make me feel better. I'm sorry, it's just one of those things."

"I still twitch every time I see anyone walking around with a sidearm."

Lexie frowned, "So do you think you can step up her training and start plans for the other children for their wands? Even just being able to do something with magic would make Lillian feel better. She is pretty sad and angry that Lexie has magic before her. I tried to explain to her that it was just chance but I don't like lying. It's because she is your daughter and has a lot of your magic."

"I just hope she has better luck with it than I did when I was starting."

"She has you and her family to keep her balanced. So Harry are you going to talk to them about the talking to snakes?" Lexie raised her leg and brushed Willow's leg. "Or are you going to stick around and enjoy the show?"

Harry chuckled, "I think you need some birthday spanks this year."

Lexie grinned and smiled brightly at Harry, "Maybe I'll even let you give me some."

Harry just chuckled as he walked out.

Lexie grinned, "He is a lot happier than he used to be."

As Willow grinned, her fangs peeked past her lips, "Well he has a bunch of lovely children and several girls that love him, that tends to help. So how's your own magic lessons going?"

Lexie sighed and brought her knees up to her chest, "I'm learning more but it's still hard dragging more lessons out of the idiots. They keep thinking I need to actually learn something about their world's stupid history. It's just frustrating, I'm starting to think that they don't know much more."

Willow eyes traveled down Lexie's legs as she admired the smooth skin, "I guess just keep working with Bode on your magic."

"I know, I just get frustrated at not being able to kill enough vampires. I'm glad I'm the kids' baby sitter but I wouldn't mind getting out of here more than once in a blue moon."

"I'm sure you could talk to Dawn about some vacation time. How's your company doing anyways?"

"I have to check in person at some point but so far so good. I'm still making money hand over foot. So how are the wands for the children going?"

Willow sat down on the bed and smiled at Lexie. She reached out and rested her hand on Lexie's knee. She grinned as she ran a finger down along the inside of Lexie's leg. "Better than your chances to get out of your birthday spanks tomorrow."

She shivered as the finger got close to her slit and stopped. "You know that's evil to stop like that."

Willow grinned, "I know but you should get plenty of attention tomorrow." She lightly glided her finger along Lexie's skin tracing her slit once before pulling her hand back. "I should go check with Dawn on the party set up."

"You do that."

Willow grinned as her eyes traced Lexie's body.

Lexie waited for the door to close before slipping her hand between her legs. "Frustrating girl."


	8. Sledding and an unwanted demon

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything that isn't mine.

Lexie yawned before looking over at the alarm clock. "Six o'clock, that's way too early to be up." She rolled out of bed with a grumble. She walked out of her room only to dodge Rose as she ran to be the first into the bathroom. Lexie watched the various children running around, "I guess going sledding was a popular choice after all." She shook her long hair as she made her way down to the kitchen. She spotted Remus sitting at the table working on some eating some bacon and eggs. "Morning."

Remus chuckled, "A bit early for you?"

"Just a touch, but it will be nice to take a day to do some sledding and playing in the snow. I can't remember the last time we did this."

"I think it was a couple of years ago. But, you're right we don't do it enough. Besides it's sort of funny watching everyone try to walk around in their snow clothes. I remember Gabrielle being so bundled up she could barely crawl last time."

"Willow might have went a touch overboard on making sure she was safe from the cold."

Lexie walked over and helped herself to a plate of food. She stabbed a piece of sausage and popped it into her mouth. "Who did the cooking?"

Buffy walked in smiling, "I cooked."

Lexie coughed and looked at the food suspiciously, "It's safe?"

Buffy chuckled, "Relax Dobby cooked it the same as always."

Lexie breathed a sigh of relief. "You shouldn't scare me like that. So not that you aren't welcome here but what are you doing here?"

"Dawn came and got me; I missed my family and thought I should spend some time hanging out."

"I see you just wanted to spoil your niece didn't you?"

Buffy grinned, "Well what's the point if you can't at least spoil your niece."

Dawn walked in looking around, "Do we have to be up so early?"

Buffy covered her eyes with her hand, "Don't you ever wear clothes Dawnie?"

"Don't get your panties in a bunch. I'll put some on after breakfast."

"So is everyone going sledding?"

"Yeah, I even swung by and grabbed Xander last night."

Willow walked in wearing the first few layers of her snow clothes. "It's a regular Scooby get together."

Buffy smiled, "How's Giles doing?"

Willow shrugged, "He's in the library reading."

Buffy smiled, "Great e-mail just isn't enough."

Lexie smiled over at Buffy, "So how's the immortal?"

"He is fine; he went off to visit the Scot, so I thought I would take Dawn up on her offer of a ride. I figure a few days of drinking wasn't up my alley."

Willow smiled as she eyed Lexie's bare chest. "How's your birthday going?"

"Other than having to get up early, not too bad."

Buffy shook her head at Willow, "Aren't you married like twice over?"

"Hey eye candy is still eye candy."

Lexie chuckled and worked on finishing her breakfast.

"I've missed you Will."

Xander stumbled in looking rather blurry eyed. "Whose bright idea was getting up this early?"

Dawn grinned, "That was mine."

Xander smiled at Dawn before blinking as he saw Buffy sitting there. "Hey it's the Buffy girl. God it's good to see you."

Buffy grinned, "Just keep your eyes off Dawnie mister."

"Ah yeah no worries, honest."

Dawn stuck her tongue out at Buffy. "I'm not a little girl any more."

Xander opened his mouth to answer and then closed it.

Remus chuckled, "He does learn, it's amazing."

Willow grinned, "Lexie do you think you could go help the kids with their clothes and boots and such?"

"You just want to plot while I'm gone don't you?"

Willow happily nodded her head. "Yuppers."

Lexie gave a long sigh, "I see how it is." She left with a smile.

"So any need to slay anything Buffy?"

"I haven't had to kill anything in a few years. I did run into a few headhunters that I seriously thought about putting out of the game. Luckily, Adam took care of them. Well, other than the ones that were after the Scot."

Willow frowned, "I'm glad you're safe. Any dreams lately?"

Buffy winced, "Only now and then and it seems like most of them are about immortal threats these days."

Remus frowned, "So what do you think that means that you dream of other immortals?"

"I don't know they're not exactly human but still. I warn Adam about the ones that seem to hate humans. I do sometimes miss the simple plans, the ones that go see vampire, put stake in it's heart to kill it and close mouth to avoid vampire dust."

Willow shrugged, "I'm not sure what to suggest."

"I don't know either. I'm thinking about taking a tour and killing some demons before slinking back to my vacation."

Dawn smiled, "It would be great to see more of you."

Buffy chuckled, "I don't think there is much more of you to see."

Dawn blushed, "Okay I'm going to get dressed now." Dawn reached over and kissed Willow on her way out.

"You know that's still strange Willow."

"I live with her; I know how strange she is. There is a reason we don't let her make the sandwiches for the parties."

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh, I know."

Xander grinned, "I think everyone here is a little strange."

Willow grinned, "I'm not the one dating a demon."

"Ex-demon, at least I'm pretty sure she is still an ex-demon."

"So do you think you could stay a bit and do some work on this place?"

"I guess though I would have to send an e-mail to Anya."

"Shouldn't be a problem."

Willow grinned, "So you up for the cold Buffy?"

"I might be manning the hot chocolate booth with Giles."

Willow grinned, "I'm sure he will enjoy the chance to catch up with you."

Rose came running in dressed in her winter clothes, "Auntie B." Rose ran and jumped into Buffy's arms. Buffy gave her a big hug before setting her back down. "It's been a while half pint."

"How are you?"

"I'm good thanks."

Willow raised her hand before glancing at Buffy and dropping her hand. She got up and fixed a small plate of food for Rose. "You should get some food in you."

Buffy deposited Rose at the table. "Where are the rest of the munchkins?"

"Making buttons work."

Willow chuckled, "They had problems getting dressed didn't they?"

"What I said." She dug into the meal with enthusiasm.

Leo walked in pulling at his winter clothes still adjusting them. "Too early."

Willow smiled, "Well you don't have to go sledding, I mean I would hate to force you to go."

"I like Snow."

Buffy chuckled, "I wis.. I mean I wouldn't mind having kids some day but I'm not sure it's in the cards."

Willow grinned, "Well you are always welcome to Gabrielle."

Gabrielle frowned as she walked in, "Thanks mom."

Willow grinned and rubbed Gabrielle's head, "I'd never get rid of you. I just meant you could go for a visit."

"Oh, okay Mom."

Buffy smiled, "She looks a lot like you."

Gabrielle turned to Xander, "Is that a good thing?"

Xander chuckled as he tried not to snicker, "Yes, that's a good thing."

Lexie walked back in followed by Lillian and Lenora. "I think we are ready to go as soon as everyone has eaten."

The group all wore smiles as they stepped out of the portal and into a snow filled campsite with a nice hill for a sled run not too far off. Giles looked around and spotted a little cabin. "At least we will soon have hot chocolate and tea."

Xander chuckled, "You know it's rather sad how much the watcher's council was holding out on us."

Giles nodded, "I didn't know the full extent of the holdings until I started looking. It also seems that a great number of the old watcher families had clauses in their wills to donate to the council should they die out. There was a great influx of land from that type of thing as well."

Lexie grinned as she held up an old-fashioned metal disk sled. "Who is for starting on the sled run?"

Gabrielle, Leo and the twins raised their hands. "Great let's get started."

Rose watched them go for a bit before walking over and starting on a small snowman. Dawn chuckled before walking over and helping her daughter with the snowman.

Xander looked over at Harry, "Care to help with the cooking?"

Harry shrugged, "What are we making?"

"American hot dogs and burgers slayer style."

"Slayer style?"

"Yeah, heaped with all types of toppings and fat."

"Ah well in that case, sure." Harry pointed his wand at the fire pit. "Incendio" With a rush a large fire sprang to life in the fire pit.

Ron frowned as Alexia dragged him off toward the woods, "But food." She signed, "It's not going to be ready for at least a half hour or so. We have time for a short walk."

Ginny looked around the white forest. "This is almost like being back home."

Hermione frowned, "Do you miss it much?"

"Parts of it I do. Other parts not so much."

Lexie walked back holding her sled.

"I am just glad for the break that lets me work on my own research."

Lexie frowned as she got closer, "How is you guy's research going on Snape's potion book?"

Hermione grinned, "We are mostly done with working through why the potion instructions in the book work. Lily has been a great help figuring out the details for each of the various potion recipes. Even Harry is starting to like potions."

Harry turned from warming his hands by the fire, "I just hated the professor. The subject is starting to warm on me."

Lexie chuckled, "I thought you said using that book was cheating?"

"My book self might have overreacted. But she did have a point; it was stupid to trust the book without going through it with a fine toothed comb."

"So how long do you think it's going to take to get through decompiling the rest of the spells in that book?"

Hermione sighed, "I don't know a few more months at least."

Ginny shrugged, "It's taught us a lot about potions. It's also shown us how much some of the older books we have could be improved on."

"Like what?"

"Well for example Hagrid knows more about a lot of the creatures than the author's of some of the books." Ginny smiled. "I know he isn't the best teacher, but he does know what he is talking about. Well mostly, he has some issues with believing some of the creatures are dangerous."

Harry muttered, "You think?"

Ginny chuckled, "I was thinking about using some of my notes to do some more research on some of the different creatures from the various lessons we had with him. It would tie in nicely with some of the medical texts I'm working on."

Harry frowned, "How would that tie in nicely?"

"How many of the animals Hagrid likes are safe?"

"Oh, good point."

Lexie frowned, "Well I could set up a computer for you to scan your text books into. That way after running them through a simple character recognition program you would have a nice word file of your text books that you could edit."

Harry grumbled, "Now you tell me this after hand writing everything out."

Hermione chuckled, "Stop bitching about it, you needed some practice anyways."

Lexie grinned, "I'll set things up when we get back."

A bit later Lexie was off by herself watching the others play in the snow when she noticed a strangely dressed figure approach her through the woods. Lexie scowled at the mobster looking man. "What do you want?"

The man who was dressed like a bad movie mobster shrugged, "I got a message from your bosses."

Lexie shrugged, "Last I checked Willow was my boss, what's it to you."

"Yeah? You're a slayer, slayers answer to the powers that be."

Lexie shrugged, "So you're a demon. Slayers kill demons."

"Names Whistler, I'm a balance demon. I work for the Powers That Be."

"I've heard about you. Buffy doesn't like you much."

Whistler holds up his hands in a placating gesture. "We got off on the wrong foot."

"I don't know, she said something about using your rib cage as a hat. I think that's a bit tacky but she has never had very good taste in clothes. Personally, I am not that impressed with the "Powers" right now. So unless you want me to scream for Willow and Buffy to come kick your ass, you might want to spill with the info. Maybe I'll even be a good little slayer and help you out." Lexie grinned down at Whistler.

"Look, one of the seers I know, had a vision about one of the council's storage houses. While normally I would not care, it seems that one of the devices it holds is an artifact that allows beings from other worlds to enter this one. The day after tomorrow a group will come through the device and take something out of storage that is vital for one of the Power's plans at some future date."

Lexie grinned, "So in other words because the new council set up new wards you can't just go down there and steal it can you?"

"There is also that whole not interfering bit. But yeah essentially the wards were too good."

"Are you going to give me any hints on which storage vault?"

"I don't honestly know, they don't tell me everything."

"Can you at least say if the people coming out of the portal device are dangerous?"

"Would you believe me, if I said no?"

Lexie shrugged, "Not really."

"I did have one other question. You aren't from this world are you? Where did you come from?"

"Technically that's two questions. Well, when two people love each other very much." Lexie grinned as his face twisted up in annoyance."

Whistler's mouth opened as if to say something before closing as he saw Willow slip from behind a tree and grin at him. He tried to keep his thoughts from racing as noticed that he couldn't sense her at all with any of his mystic senses.

Willow grinned at his expression, "Something the matter?"

"How?"

"You mean why can't you sense me?"

Whistler nodded, "That should be impossible."

Willow shrugged, "An acquaintance of mine taught me a trick or two about staying off the radar of mystical sensors, seers and other such things. Rather handy I think. I figure your bosses as you like to call them already tried once to get me into a battle designed to kill me. Your bosses let Tara die! Your bosses let Joyce die and your bosses didn't blink an eye when Jessie died." Her eyes took on a purple glow as her power started boiling past her shields in her anger. She advanced on Whistler. "If I ever find evidence that they in any way twist events so that any of my loved ones get hurt. I'm going to come for them, one by one until they are all dead. Now get out of here before I tell Buffy you're here."

He held up his hands, "I'm going." Whistler having delivered his message and not wanting to test his immortality against an angry witch of Willow's power teleported away.

Lexie glanced around to see if anyone else had taken notice of their little exchange. The rest of the people went on playing having obviously missed the exchange. "You okay Willow?"

Willow shook her head as her eyes returned to their normal color. "I'll be fine. The powers that shit on our lives just make me so mad. We should probably talk about what he said with the others though. Whistler might be the power's errand boy but he only shows up for important things."

Lexie sighed, "I'll help look through the storehouses tomorrow but I'm going to go enjoy my birthday sledding today, and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow."

Willow took a minute to calm down before she headed over to the cabin where Buffy was in whispered conversation with Giles. He looked up, "What was with the power flare? Is something wrong?"

She shook her head, "Maybe, Whistler just showed up for a chat with Lexie, I suppose any of the various slayers around here other than Buffy would have worked for his message. It seems he is still a bit nervous about seeing her again."

Buffy grinned darkly, "I would have liked a new hat."

Giles frowned, "Yes well, what did he have to say?"

"Some thing about some group coming through a portal in one of the council's storerooms and stealing something the powers didn't want stolen."

Giles reached up and pulled his glasses off before rubbing them with his shirt. "Did he give a time frame?"

"Yes, said it would happen day after tomorrow. He didn't say which storage room though."

Buffy scowled, "Always most helpful isn't he. So watcher mine what do you think we should do?"

Giles frowned as he put his glasses back on. "Nothing for it but to assign some slayers to guard the storage rooms. The only problem is some of those storerooms have dangerous devices in them. Willow do you think you and your friends would want to help? I figure we can split up into groups and guard the more important storage places while some of the younger slayers take the less dangerous storage rooms."

Buffy nodded, "We still have a bit of time to enjoy the day though."

Giles rubbed his hands together, "Bugger, I was hoping to get out of this cold."

Willow chuckled, "I'm off to help with the kids' snow castle."

Later that night the gang was gathered around the fire sharing stories. The children were all bundled up inside the cabin having worn themselves out playing all day. Dawn grinned, "I don't believe we have given the birthday girl her spanks yet."

Lexie eyed the rest of the crowd nervously, "I don't think so."

Willow grinned, "Relax, Dawn's just playing with you. We were planning on going dancing but I'm not sure we should what with the guard duty coming up."

Buffy's eyes brightened, "Dancing? Oh no way is some demon's cryptic warning going to mess up a night of dancing."

Faith grinned as she pulled a roasted marshmallow off her stick. "I'm with B on this one."

Giles frowned, "As much as I would like to say we need to research or something there isn't much to do that we can't have the actual researchers look over. Besides you have all of tomorrow to recover from your night on the town."

Dawn grinned, "Sounds good to me. Let's round up the children and go back and get out of our snow clothes."

With a bit of work, the fire was doused and the children collected.

And so it was that midnight found Buffy, Faith, Lexie, Dawn, Willow, Hermione and Xander dragging a complaining Harry Potter behind them. Dawn giggled, "Oh come on Harry you will have fun."

Harry sighed, "But it's dancing."

Hermione frowned at him, "You've been practicing besides you need to get out and have some fun."

"How come you didn't drag Ron along?"

Dawn chuckled, "Well I didn't want to have to deal with him tonight. Besides he would have made a scene."

Buffy glanced at Dawn, "Alright you have been entirely too happy lately, where are we and what did you do with the real Dawn."

"Relax it's not Tuesday. We are actually in Lexie's home world at a rather nice club. I thought we could pick her up some more parts and tech manuals while we were here."

Xander's eyes went wide as he took in all of the skimpily dressed girls lined up to get into the club, "Anya is going to kill me."

Willow grinned, "Quite possibly."

The group got to the end of the line as they continued chattering. Faith grinned, "You think they have any good pool games B?"

"You thinking of making some cash?"

"Why not, if you have got it flaunt it."

Lexie frowned, "I just wish Rogue wasn't back training with the x-men for the weekend."

Willow nodded, "Well I'm sure you two will just have to do something special when Rogue and Wolverine get back."

Faith grinned, "But while the cats are away the mice will play."

Buffy glanced at Dawn, "Why are there no cute guys in line?"

Xander blinked, "She's got a point."

Hermione frowned, "Well I'm guessing it's because it's hard to convince guys to come dance just look at Harry."

Dawn grinned as she turned and paid the cover charge for the group.

Buffy's eyes bugged out as she walked in and got a good look at the girls in the club. "Dawnie care to explain why we are in a bar with mostly scantily clad teenage girls?"

Xander grinned as he looked around, "And why didn't you take us here before?"

Faith glanced over toward some girls playing at the pool table. "I think I see some girls I would like to get to know a bit better."

Harry was too busy looking around at the thong clad topless girls dancing on poles on the second story balcony to worry about what Faith was doing.

Xander and Willow both grinned and spoke together, "Eye candy."

Hermione looked around nervously, "Ah now what?"

Xander smiled as he pulled his eyes off the crowd of girls and over to Buffy. He held out a hand to Buffy. "May I have this dance?"

Buffy chuckled, "Since when could you dance?"

Xander's goofy smile increased, "Since when has that stopped me."

Buffy chuckled as she led Xander to the dance floor.

Willow grinned, "So would you like a dance Hermione?"

Hermione frowned nervously, "I guess."

Willow stepped gracefully as she led Hermione and Harry off to the dance floor.

Dawn turned to Lexie, "So what do you think?"

Lexie laughed softly, "It's nice, the music is even good."

Dawn grinned, "It took a while to find this place. Shall we get some drinks and enjoy the show?"

"I think we should."

Dawn grinned as she ordered two tall ciders. "Buffy would be furious if I drank anything with alcohol."

"Does she even get the fact that you are over twenty one?"

Dawn shrugged, "I'm not sure she even thinks about it."

Lexie chuckled, "At least they look like they are having a good time."

Dawn grinned, "I've seen you eying all of the girls that walk by."

"Hey that's not true some of them look rather scary."

"Do you want to dance with me? Or do I have to wait for Willow or Hermione to finish?"

"I'll dance a round or two."

"Good, maybe after that your surprise will show up." Dawn took Lexie's hand and led her out onto the dance floor."

Faith grinned as she snagged a beer from the barman. She walked up to one of the pool tables, leaned against it and took a drink of her beer while waiting for a mark to show up.

Buffy chuckled as she danced; if she was honest with herself, she knew she would have to admit to having a great time. It felt so good to be back hanging out with the Scooby gang. Truth be told, Adam was rather boring when it came to parties. "So what do you think about this place Xander?"

"Well the security is great, there are some very large chrome sporting bouncer types to stop anyone from causing problems. The eye candy is of course nice. I would say it's a rather safe way to spend your time. And did I mention the eye candy?"

"Just be careful or one of these girls might break you in half. They might not be slayers but more than a few have cyberwear that make them strong enough and insane enough."

Xander grinned, "Point taken. You should probably go check on Faith."

"No rest for the wicked yeah?"

"Never."

Willow smiled as she danced with Harry. "You aren't too bad of a dancer."

"I've been practicing. I wanted to not look like an idiot, besides Sirius said it was a good way to impress girls."

"It's nice getting out of the house now and then though."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "You get out all the time chasing after slayers."

"True but it's rare that I get out with friends."

Hermione blinked as a cute girl with short blue hair and a few piercings grabbed her hand. The girl smiled "Would you dance with me?"

Hermione glanced over at the girl's shimmery sheer shirt and too short mini skirt before reining in her fear and nervously nodding. "I would be happy too."

Lexie eyed a cute young red headed girl as she nervously came through the crowd to stop in front of Dawn. The girl was maybe a year or two younger than Lexie. "Hi, I hope now is alright?"

Dawn smiled at the girl, "Now is fine."

Lexie frowned, "What's going on Dawn?"

Dawn smiled, "Do you think she is pretty?"

Lexie nodded as she noticed the light dusting of freckles on the girl's face. A smallish white shirt clung to the girl showing off the outline of her breasts nicely. Her only other article of clothing that Lexie could see was a rather short bluish skirt made of some gauzy material. "She is pretty."

Dawn smiled, "I thought you would like to see her without clothes, sort of a birthday strip present."

Lexie blinked, "You serious?"

The girl nodded nervously, "If you want too."

Lexie smiled happily, "I would love too."

"Follow me." Dawn grinned and led the two girls up the side stairs past two of the burly guards and into a room with a number of windows built of one-way glass. Looking around she noticed a few expensive looking chairs and tables. Mostly the room just looked to be a place where VIPs could look out at the girls without being seen themselves. "I thought this might give us a bit of privacy as well."

"You can call me Heather. I've never, that is to say I'm never done this before. So I'm nervous, please forgive me if I do something wrong."

Dawn smiled and sat her bag down on the table before taking a seat. "Lexie go ahead and take a seat."

Lexie nodded quickly before sitting in a chair and fastening her eyes on Heather.

Heather smiled nervously before she spun around slowly giving the girls a nice look at both sides of her. She slowly reached down and untied her shoes before kicking them off behind her. She smiled slightly as she lifted her foot and set it lightly on Lexie's knees. "If you would be so kind as to remove the sock." Lexie carefully peeled the sock away. "Thank you." Heather smiled as she slowly trailed her foot down Lexie's leg. She then stuck out her other foot to have that sock removed. Lexie once again slipped the sock off. Heather moved back a few steps before slowly crossing her arms and teasing her shirt off slowly.

Lexie smiled as she watched the cute girl in front of her slowly pulling her shirt off.

Heather extracted her head from the shirt and held the shirt against her chest a second before taking a deep breath and dropping it behind her. She stood there for the count of five as Lexie and Dawn took in the sight. She smiled nervously.

Lexie grinned, "Wonderful."

Heather encouraged by the praise smiled as she slowly slid her fingers down her side to hook the sides of her skirt. She slowly pulled it down until just the barest hint of strawberry hair was visible. She smiled and twirled around to show off the tops of her bottom. She slid the skirt all of the way down to the bottom of her bottom before shifting her hands to the front of the skirt and twisting back around to face the girls. She smiled as she inched the skirt slowly off her hips before letting it fall to the ground showing a mess of thin reddish curls.

Lexie smiled as she took in the sight of the cute girl. "You are very pretty."

Heather smiled and spun around slowly once for Lexie.

"What's next?"


	9. Painting Flowers

Gabrielle knocked on the door to Lexie's room before slipping inside the room. She put her hands on her slender hips in an exasperated pose as she leaned against the door frame. "Are you going to play on your computer all day? You've been on that thing for a week straight."

Lexie glanced over her shoulder at an impatient Gabrielle leaning against the doorway. She used her feet to twirl her chair around to face the door way. "I've been going over the new tech we got on the last mission. It's really cool. Not that you aren't welcome to come and hang out but why aren't you hanging out with your siblings?"

Gabrielle frowned, "Well Lillian and Lenora are still in the shower, then they have to get ready for their trip to their grandparents' house. Rose is working on her magic with her mom."

"What about Leo?"

Gabrielle idly played with a lock of her hair. "He is working on his homework. Mrs. Lily said I couldn't help him. Mom is off chasing down another slayer so I figured I would come see if you had anything fun to work on."

"Well not right now, but as I could use a break maybe we should head to the pool area and enjoy the fake sunlight."

"I think I'll go work on my art."

Lexie nodded, "I'll be at the pool if you change your mind."

Gabrielle smiled, "Maybe later."

Lexie glanced up from her spot in the hot tub as a guilty looking paint covered Gabrielle walked in followed by Neville. She noticed all of the paint designs on Gabrielle's bare flesh. "Do I even want to know what happened?"

Neville sighed, "I had stepped out for a few minutes and I came back to find my garden had lots more color than I remembered. All of the pots are brightly colored and some of the plants that were too plain got some attention as well."

Gabrielle sniffled, "I thought you would like it. But Neville just sort of looked at it blankly before bringing me here. What's wrong with it? You don't like it do you?"

Neville smiled, "It's not that we don't like it, it's just that the plants probably shouldn't be painted."

Lexie grinned, "We should probably get you cleaned up before the paint sticks to you. Maybe after that you can help Neville clean up the paint in the garden. On the upside, Rose and Leo should be done with their homework by then."

Lexie imagined a black rose opening as her magic flooded into her. She used a small thread of it to toss a sponge and soap to Gabrielle. She sighed as she let go of the power. "Get yourself washed and after you help Neville we'll go find the others and do something fun."

Gabrielle took the sponge and soap and walked the short distance to the rinse off shower by the edge of the pool. Lexie watched Gabrielle scrub at the paint for a while. "Helps if you use soap."

Later that night Rose was laying on their bed watching Gabrielle read. "I heard you got into trouble today."

Gabrielle put her finger in the large children's book to mark her place. "I just wanted to surprise Neville with my painting."

"I think you surprised him."

"I helped clean up the plants."

Rose glanced around the toy stuffed room. Dozens of stuffed animals lined most surfaces other than the floor. Though there were a few littered on the floor as well. She smiled as she glanced at the king sized bed that they were laying on. "I'm glad, maybe next time just paint the flower pots and not the flowers."

Gabrielle huffed, "I guess but they looked neat."

"Think we can talk Dad into reading some stories tonight?"

"I hope so, Lexie forgot."

"She has been really busy lately."

"I know." Gabrielle sighed. "It's just not the same when Dad reads it."

"Yeah, he doesn't do the voices."

Gabrielle giggled, "The big scary voices are the best."

Rose shook her head, "I like the little voices of the pixies she some times does."

"Okay we are just going to have to drag her away from her computer to play with us."

Rose nodded, "I can't wait for Lillian and Nora to get back. Mom said we get our wands when they come back."

"How hard do you think using a wand will be?"

"I don't know. It can't be that tough."

"Well maybe they will stop complaining about us using magic during games."

Rose glanced over at Gabrielle, "I don't know what you mean Gabi."

"I saw you teleport the other day."

Rose sighed, "I'm still working on that."

"I'm still working on my magic too. Mom says it takes a while to get it under control."

Rose brightened, "So what type of wand do you think you'll get?"

She shrugged as she put her book away on her night stand. "Whatever wand mom makes for us I guess."

"Auntie Willow isn't being very forthcoming on what the wands look like. I'm going to get some sleep and find out in the morning." Rose crawled under the covers and snuggled into her pillow.

Gabrielle glanced up at the door when she heard the knock. "Come in."

Harry smiled as him and Leo stepped in. "You don't mind if your brother listens to the story do you?"

Gabrielle smiled and moved back from the edge of the large bed a bit to give Leo room to sit, "Nope."

"Thanks." Leo grinned as he jumped up on the bed and took a spot next to Gabrielle.

Harry flopped down in the big comfy reading chair. "When last we left our band of heroes they were scaling the peek of Mount Doom."


	10. Wands

Gabrielle was lightly bouncing back and forth on her little bare feet. She glanced up at Dawn, "When are they getting back?"

Dawn watched Gabrielle's long red hair wave back and forth with her antics. "It's just been a weekend. You would think you haven't seen your sisters in at least a week."

She smiled up at Dawn, "I missed them."

"It's not the first time they have spent a weekend at their grandparents' house. Oh, I see, you just want your wand."

Gabrielle shook her head vigorously, "Not true."

Dawn smirked, "So if I said that you wouldn't be getting your wands today you'd still be happy?"

She stomped her foot, "Hey, that's not fair at all."

Dawn chuckled at her, "I was only kidding Gabrielle."

"I knew that." She looked away from Dawn and back toward the cleared area.

A slightly out of breath Rose came pattering around the corner and into the room. "Am I late?"

Dawn smiled at her daughter, "A witch is never late, nor is she early, she arrives precisely when she means to."

Rose chuckled, "I think that refers to a wizard."

Dawn shrugged, "Well in any case you're just in time." She gestured to the open spot and summoned a portal.

Hermione stepped through followed by Lillian and Lenora. Dawn glanced at Hermione's jeans and her blue t-shirt. She swept her eyes over the twins who were fidgeting with their little pink dresses. "I think your mother got the better deal for clothes."

Lillian growled, "It's bad enough that we had to wear clothes but pink?"

Lenora reached up to touch her bushy newly pigtailed hair. "Pigtails?"

"Don't worry, Mom will grow out of it." Hermione chuckled as she left the room.

Gabrielle smiled at Lenora, reached up and ran a hand along the pink ribbon keeping Lenora's hair up. "I love the pigtails Lenora but I think the pink needs to go."

Lenora nodded, "I think so."

Lillian frowned as she took out the ribbons that held her pigtails up. "I think I'll pass on the tails."

Lenora chuckled, "I look better with them anyways."

Lillian rolled her eyes, "We look identical."

Lenora flipped the end of her pig tail. "If you say so."

Lillian scampered out of the room heading to their room to change.

Dawn chuckled, "Willow would like to see all of you girls in thirty minutes if you want to go put your stuff away."

Rose and Gabrielle followed with Lenora tagging along.

Lillian had already stripped out of her pink dress and was hanging it up when the others entered.

Rose smiled at Lillian, "It could be worse, at least it doesn't look that bad, other than the color. Maybe your mom could fix the color."

Lillian nodded, "It was really nice of Grandma to buy it. I already asked mom about the color, she said that once we get our wands she would teach me the charm to change it's color."

Lenora carefully slipped out of her dress.

Gabrielle's eyes traveled down to Lenora's cute kitten underwear. "Awe cute."

Lenora glanced down at her new underwear. "They came with the dress." She reached down and pulled them off. "If you want them, here." She tossed them playfully at Gabrielle's face.

Gabrielle smiled and caught them before sniffing them with a smile. "Thanks."

Rose wrinkled her nose, "No more watching Auntie Lexie's private video collection for you."

Lenora frowned, "Can you do something about the color of the ribbons?"

Gabrielle tossed the underwear onto her pillow. She turned back to look at Lenora and concentrated as she ran her fingers along the ribbons in Lenora's hair. The girls watched fascinated as they changed from a girly pink to a nice deep crimson. "There much better."

"Thanks."

Rose frowned at the underwear before glancing at her watch the only piece of clothing she was currently wearing. "We need to go."

Gabrielle smiled brightly, "Wand time."

The girls hurried down the stairs two steps at a time.

Leo dodged the rampaging girls as he made his own way down the stairs from his room. "Hey, watch it."

Rose called back, "Sorry, slow poke."

Leo rolled his little green eyes as he rushed down after his crazy siblings.

Willow smiled as the group came running into the classroom. "I've made several wands that might like you bunch of ragamuffins. Please step forward and take a look see."

Hermione gestured to the table, "There are some that I made that hopefully will work if the ones Willow made don't."

Leo glanced over at all of his sisters, he was suddenly nervous about a wand choosing him, "So who wants to go first?"

Rose shrugged, "Go for it."

Leo stepped up to the low table and glanced at the various wands arranged on it. He reached out and grabbed a pure white maple wand first. He blinked as nothing happened.

Lenora chuckled, "You have to flick it."

He flicked the wand and frowned as bursts of jarring light shot out of the tip of the wand. "Maybe not." He hastily set the wand down, before moving along to another. He picked up a long wand made of a deep dark wood. He gave it a flick and felt a rush as sparkles shot out of it. "I think we have a winner." He smiled before rushing over to hug Faith in the corner of the room.

Rose stepped up and looked over the wands for a few seconds. She picked up the first wand that Leo had tried. She smiled as she flicked it and a swirl of green mist came out along with a haunting chord of music. "First try."

Gabrielle rolled her eyes even as she smiled. "Show off."

Lenora stepped up and looked through the wands briefly before picking another dark colored wand off the table. One of the chairs exploded as she gave the wand a flick.

Hermione frowned, "Maybe not that one dear."

Lenora went through a number of chairs as she sorted through the wands. The adults in the room moved further back from the testing area with each discarded wand. After testing almost the whole stack, she flicked a wand made out of a pale wood. She grinned as bright sparkles flew out of it.

Lillian glanced around briefly before grabbing a wand that looked to be the twin of her sisters. With a small flick she winced as flames cascaded out of the tip. "Hmm I guess not that one." She picked up a wand made of a dark wood. With a hesitant flick roses popped out of the end. "Yep."

Rose grinned, "Hey that's cool."

Lillian smiled as she walked over and hugged Hermione before turning and watching Gabrielle walk up to the table and look over the wands that were left.

Gabrielle smiled as she picked up a long wand made of willow. She frowned as she shook it and nothing happened. She carefully set the wand back down and tried another. One of the chairs melted into a pile of goop as she flicked the wand. The room was a mess of destruction by the time Gabrielle had gotten to the last untested wand. She carefully picked up the ash wand and gave it a wave. She blinked back tears as yet another chair went up in flames. She set the last wand on the table before running from the room, tears streaming from her eyes.

Willow blinked back tears, "I'll go talk to her."

Lexie sighed as she started for the door. "I'll talk to her. I know something about magic not working out like you thought. Besides I don't think she wants to cry in front of her mom."

Willow nodded, "Please."

The girls and Leo sighed, "Sorry."

"It's not your fault. We just didn't make enough different wands I guess. We should be lucky that the rest of you found a wand that liked you. Just pleased don't make her feel too bad."

The children nodded as they left. Their joy was tempered by their sister's pain at not finding a wand.

Lexie sighed as she walked through the garden and spotted a naked Gabrielle curled up in the corner of the garden behind some large planters. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Gabrielle sniffled and shook her head.

"You know that there weren't that many wands on the table and that most likely they just haven't found the proper wand for you?"

Gabrielle looked up with a hopeful look, "Do you believe that?"

Lexie sat down next to Gabrielle. "It doesn't matter what I believe."

She blinked up at Lexie, "Hey, you're not helping."

Lexie shook her head slightly, "I'm just being honest."

"What if I'm a freak and no wand likes me?"

"Because you can already do magic?"

Gabrielle looked at the floor downcast, "Yeah."

"Then you just learn without a wand and use a stick like your mother does when she has people to fool."

"I wanted to be the same as my sisters at something."

Lexie smiled as she pulled Gabrielle onto her lap and into a hug, "None of us are normal, we have magic, and so what if your magic is different from your sisters magic?"

Gabrielle sniffled, "Just once…"

Lexie hugged Gabrielle to her tightly, "I know."


	11. Games

Harry was filled with sadness for his daughter as the weeks flew past and neither Willow nor Hermione were able to come up with a wand that Gabrielle could use. His mind flashed back to the last wand, of the extra few dozen they had made, that she had tried before she gave up. She had with a gentle flick caused a horrible stench to fill the air. It had taken them days to get the odor out of their hair. Hoping to make her feel better Harry had even told her the story about his own search for a wand. He wasn't sure it had helped do anything other than get his daughter to abandon hope in acquiring a wand. The fact that she had asked Willow and Hermione to stop making wands for her to try had stung Willow a bit. That was several weeks ago. He looked up as Faith walked into the kitchen where he was slumped. "Any luck cheering her up?"

Faith grinned, "Well the new pet seems to be a big hit with her and the rest of the kids as well."

Harry shuddered, "I'm not sure that getting a five year old a pet Anaconda is the best idea."

"She can talk to snakes, how bad can it be? Besides it's just a baby."

Harry shook his head, "I guess… It's growing fast though."

Faith laughed, "If Ron didn't have such an unhealthy fascination with tossing Slith as many mice and rats as it can eat it wouldn't be growing so fast."

"Can't say I blame him but still."

"Still it can't be worse than Spike's present."

"I still can't believe he got her a knife."

"He thought she could use it I guess."

He looked up the plate of cold food in front of him. "I don't care how much she practices with the practice swords five year old girls shouldn't have real knives."

Faith scowled at him, "But it's okay for Leo to have them? I didn't see you complaining when I gave him his first knife."

"That's different and you know it Faith."

"Why because Leo is a boy?"

"No, it's because the pocket knife wasn't half a foot of metal."

Faith sighed, "Are you going to take it away from her?"

Harry sighed, "I put some spells on it to keep her from seriously cutting herself. Other than that I'm forcing him to teach her how to handle it and fight with it."

She chuckled, "How are you doing that?"

"I just told him that if he didn't, I would let Willow turn him into a fluffy bunny and then I would lock him in a room with Anya and a chainsaw."

She shuddered, "You've been spending too much time with Xander lately."

He grinned, "I'm just glad that Gabrielle is feeling better."

"How's her magic classes going without a wand?"

He shrugged, "Some things work fine without a wand and some things don't. Willow is working with her a lot these days. She even has a few classes with Dobby working on seeing if she can learn any of his tricks."

Faith frowned, "Any luck so far?"

"Not really but it keeps her from dwelling on the no wand bit."

"I'm just hoping that the snake familiar doesn't make her think Slytherin is in anyway a worthwhile house."

"Not much danger of that Harry, none of the girls like Slytherin, they have spent too much time with James and Sirius for them to fall into that house. You have much more to worry about from Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff stealing your children."

Harry smiled, "Glad to hear it."

Faith grinned, "You should hurry up and toss the cold trail rations in the trash and help Hermione and Lily out with the finishing touches on the new expanded potions book."

Harry groaned, "At least it's almost finished. I'm still amazed at how much it taught us about potions and spells. I have to say that no matter how much I might hate Snape, he does know an insane amount about potions. I just wish he had actually taught like he was supposed too."

Faith shrugged, "It's water under the bridge now. Just work on improving your skill with potions and defense. Besides I heard that Hermione wants to go through all of your old school books looking to do a write up of the theory behind each spell."

Harry left his dishes on the table as he walked out of the room with a sigh, "At least I don't have to worry about house points for being late."


	12. Crimson eyed witch

An: I don't normally do a violence warning, but I feel it's needed this time. I had intended to write a happy fluffy Halloween party chapter. What I ended up with was not exactly a happy chapter. There is descriptions of violence near the end of the chapter. You might want to stop reading when the scary man shows up.

Gabrielle picked at the silk of her new renaissance styled dress. She thought silk was a bit excessive just for trick or treating but auntie Lexie had offered to pick up the tab on all of the children's outfits this year. She looked in the full length mirror and twirled around briefly. She giggled as the dress flared as she spun. She glanced around at the flurry of activity that was her sisters. She couldn't help but grin as she watched her family get ready for their first Halloween visiting Angel's world. He had invited them to a large costume ball in his city. She was glad that everyone was taking a break from homework and projects to relax and have a night of fun. Her own projects were stuffed to the back of her eight year old mind as she watched her sisters put the finishing touches on their costumes.

Rose grinned as she applied the finishing touches to Lenora's cat makeup. "I still think your mom is crazy for letting you out of the house in what amounts to furry undies."

Lenora smiled up at Rose, "Don't forget the cat's tail. I think I might even have gotten the spell to animate it to work right. Do you think you could put my collar on for me?" She handed Rose a slim black leather collar.

Rose rolled her eyes then reached over and fastened the black leather collar around Lenora's neck being careful to avoid messing up Lenora's hair. "I still think you and Gabi are weird."

Gabrielle chuckled as she eyed Lenora's costume, "Cute weird or just weird, weird?"

Rose chuckled as she clipped the leash on Lenora's collar and tossed the handle to Gabrielle. "A bit of both."

Gabrielle frowned as she scrunched her face up, "Why couldn't we just use a glamour spell to make me look pale? The makeup smells funny, plus these fangs are annoying."

Rose shrugged, "We could have but then you would have had to concentrate on it all night. You should be happy that you didn't need much makeup to make you look pale. As for the fangs just be happy they come out when the night is over unlike your mother's. You do know that most people can't smell the makeup right?"

Gabrielle sighed, "Yeah I know."

Rose whispered, "You really should tell one of the adults about your senses being in overdrive mode all the time now."

"I will after the party. I just want to relax and have some fun. Hey enough about me, what about your costume?"

"I'm going to go as a witch."

"Not much of a costume is it?"

"It's easy, and I had most of the supplies." She grinned as she flipped her witch's hat onto her head. "Alright my pretties, who else needs help with their makeup?"

Lillian shrugged as she walked in from the bathroom with a pumpkin costumed Lillyanne trailing behind her. "I think I have all of my costume details worked out but Lilly could use some help finishing her stuff up."

Rose chuckled at the messy lines of makeup on the seven year old's face.

Lilly smiled brightly, "I did most of it myself."

"I can see that, maybe we can touch up a couple of places."

Lillian helped Lilly get into the chair despite an overly large pumpkin caboose of a bottom piece on her costume.

Gabrielle glanced at Lillian's zombie makeup. "You look great Lillian. I just w… would have liked two kitty cats."

Lillian rolled her eyes, "Not that I wouldn't like to be our kitty too but, I don't always have to look like Lenora besides some of the people slash things at the ball are going to be creepy. I would prefer a costume where I can have my wand handy."

Further discussion was averted by the arrival of the knight in mostly shining armor, Leo and the red headed pirate William.

William smirked, "Ah a room filled with girls and no lusty wenches to be seen."

Leo rolled his eyes, "I told you they would go for decent costumes…" He swallowed as he glanced at Lenora before looking around the rest of the room. "Well mostly."

Lillyanne frowned over at the boys, "Rose, can I trade you?"

William puffed up and fluffed out his pirate shirt as he tried to strike a dramatic stance. "Aye I must be a most worthy pirate as my own sweet cousin wants to disown me now."

Rose chuckled, "I don't think so. He is about the only one here I'm not related too."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I'll keep my cat girl, even if she is my sister."

Lenora grinned, "Meow."

Leo chuckled, "You're both weird."

Gabrielle and Lenora both smiled at each other, "Thanks."

He sighed, "Mom was talking about how this ball might not be the safest place."

Rose frowned, "She said that to you?"

He grinned, "Nope but I overhead her talking to Dad about it."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

William grinned, a very pirate like grin, "What any good Gryffindor would do, keep our wands at the ready and charge in like loons."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I think we should just make sure we know where an adult we trust is at all times. And someone should keep track of Lilly here."

Lilly frowned at Gabrielle, "I have a wand, you know."

"I do sweetie, but I'll be happier if we stick together there."

Leo shrugged, "Honestly Angel is supposed to have enough guards to make sure nothing bad happens there."

William frowned, "Because that's always worked so well in the past?"

Gabrielle frowned, "Hey let's finish up getting ready then we can see what the adults are wearing."

Lillian chuckled, "Oh come on, Mom is always some storybook character. At least your mom picks different things to be."

In another part of house Harry was slack jawed as he stared at one of his best friend's outfits. Hermione was decked out in crimson and gold silk robes. Her long hair had even been charmed to lie somewhat smoothly. "Hermione you're gorgeous."

Hermione smiled, "Thank you." She scrutinized at Harry's tattered zombie costume. Strange blue oozing liquid bubbled out of apparent cuts in Harry's skin. "I'm impressed that you could pull off the charms to get the zombie look just right. I think Lillian might be a bit sad to be upstaged though."

Harry grinned, "Well if I can up stage her then maybe she needs more work on her charms."

Lexie chuckled as she walked into the room, her overly large clown shoes making a clomping noise as she dragged Neville into the room. "It might have helped if you had told them they could use magic on their costumes."

He grinned, "Oops, I guess I forgot."

Ginny slinked up in her fox girl outfit to lean up against Harry, "I just think you wanted to make sure you weren't outshone by a couple of eight year olds."

Ron laughed as Neville was dragged into the room. "What are you supposed to be mate?"

Neville coughed as he turned slightly red, "I'm a daisy that shoots water. It's a muggle thing according to Lexie."

Lexie gestured to her clown outfit complete with funny red nose. "Yep, clowns sometimes wear a daisy that shoots water. I figured sense he hadn't come up with a costume that he could be my daisy."

Rogue chuckled from her spot on the couch, she was dressed as a punk rocker.

Dawn swished into the room dressed in black slacks and a blood splattered shirt that had been strategically ripped in various places. A red stained toy chainsaw hung from her belt. "I love my work."

Willow was hurriedly putting the last few test tubes into her lab coat.

Dawn glanced at the name tag on Willow's chest. "Maggie? Just be glad Buffy isn't here she would freak. It's funny though for your mad scientist costume."

Willow grinned and displayed her fangs, "I happened to like it."

"I think almost everyone is here, where are Xander and Anya?"

"He said he would be here shortly."

"Can you really see him getting along with Angel?"

Willow's eyes widened as she glanced over and saw Xander step into the light from the hallway. She broke into slightly panicked laughter as she noticed the credible imitation of Van Helsing. "Xander you know that it's another world, and that vampires are legal there. They might not even know who Van Helsing is, or worse they could."

Xander shrugged, "Ah but the important thing is that Corpsey knows who he is."

Willow sighed, "Try to not antagonize him overly much in front of people Xander."

"I don't trust him, I'm coming along to say hi to Cordelia and make sure the children are safe."

Anya stepped out of the shadows to reveal her Valkyrie costume. At the strange looks she received she sputtered defensively. "It's a Valkyrie costume, they were big on the vengeance and justice."

Dawn snickered, "It's okay Anya it's a great costume." Dawn tossed a thought to Willow, "Not much of a stretch but still it works."

Willow chuckled, "Alright let's get the children and get going to this great party."

A short while later found Gabrielle looking out of the limo window enjoying the nighttime lights of a city. "At least he isn't scrimping on cost."

Rose shrugged, "I'm just glad we got a car to ourselves without all the adults."

The large clown cleared her throat, "I'm an adult."

Lenora rolled her eyes, "You don't count, you're fun."

"Thanks I'll remember that when I'm trying to explain to your parents what went wrong."

Gabrielle frowned as the car came to a halt in front of the convention center. "I think there are a lot more supernatural creatures here than I envisioned being here."

Lexie frowned, "How?"

"I can feel them."

Lillian frowned, "How many does there have to be to feel them from this far away?"

Gabrielle took a deep breath, "A lot."

Lexie shrugged, "Well just remember to behave yourselves and have fun."

Willow smiled as noticed an Angel that was decked out as a Roman Gladiator. "You've been letting Cordelia dress you again haven't you?"

Angel started then glanced over at Willow. "It's nice to see that you could make it." He frowned as he noticed Xander. "It's still nice you came."

Xander grinned, "I just wanted to check up on things, make sure Cordy was being taken care of."

Angel's smile hardened around the eyes, "Go check on her yourself. I'm not the bad guy here Xander. I shouldn't have to remind you, but killing vampires isn't legal here."

Xander shrugged, "That whole soul thing. Don't worry, I'm long over hating you Corpsey." He grinned as he could hear Angel nashing his teeth as he left to mingle.

Willow shrugged, "Don't mind him, old habbits die hard."

"It's still good to see you Willow." Angel sighed as an assistant came up and whispered something in his ear.

Willow waved him away, "I'm sure I can find something to do while you deal with the politics of this place."

Angel nodded as he was virtually dragged away.

Gabrielle sat down on the lip of a fountain pool. Its slow bubbly noise helped to ease the headache she was starting to acquire from the overload of her mystic senses. She was used to sorting through the magical feel each of her family had. From the strawberry taste of her mother's powerful magic to the unique tasty flavors each of her sisters had. She knew that it wasn't really a taste but that was the closest thing she could relate it to. She inhaled Lenora's scent as even as her sister waited patiently for her to get her equilibrium back. "Too many supernatural creatures."

Lenora frowned even as she sat down and put a comforting arm around her, "Just relax and try to ignore the feelings."

"They make an awful mess of things in my head."

"Maybe something to drink or eat?"

Gabrielle shook her head and winced, "Xander's right just because you have a soul doesn't make you a nice person. "Plus necromancers taste like…" She looks around to make sure there isn't an adult very close, "Rotting shit anyways."

Lenora wrinkled her nose up, "That's gross, and it's not their fault."

Gabrielle scrapped her tongue with her teeth. "How do people deal with this?"

She patted Gabrielle on the back, "Gabi I think you're the only person that can feel all of the rest of them. So I guess it's up to you to figure out a solution."

Gabrielle buried her head into her hands.

Lenora frowned, "We can sit here awhile longer if that's what you want."

Gabrielle nodded, "Please, I'm sorry to keep you from the party."

"It's a bunch of adults and a couple dozen children few of whom are that interesting. You're my party Gabi, so I'm stuck with you." She smiled brightly as she traced her fingers along her leash. "Besides I'm sort of tied to you."

Gabrielle smiled faintly as she glanced up at Lenora, "You could always take it off."

"I could but then the collar would look silly."

Gabrielle chuckled faintly, "I'm going to try to sort through some of the feelings maybe that would help some."

Xander leaned against a marble pillar sipping a glass of cherry colored liquid, "Excellent punch."

Willow grinned, "Admit it, you're having a great time."

He shrugged, "I don't know about great but I'm enjoying myself. The kids are staying out of trouble. I'd call it an almost successful party."

Willow raised an eyebrow, "Oh, and what would make it a perfect party?"

"A dance from my bestest bud." Xander held out his hand. "If I could have this dance?"

Willow glanced around at the mostly deserted dance floor, "Why not?" She waved a hand in the air and soft music started playing.

He chuckled as they danced along to the music.

Gabrielle glanced up as she felt a strange aura get closer. She looked around for a second before spotting a girl about her own age that was admiring Lenora. Gabrielle looked into the shadows where the girl was standing. "Hi I'm Gabi, and this is Lenora"

The girl blinked as she looked around nervously. "I'm Sylvie."

Gabrielle tilted her head slightly at the girls strangely drawn out quiet words. "Pleasure to meet you."

Lenora smiled from her spot leaning against Gabrielle, "Would you like to sit down?"

Sylvie looked around nervously, "I guess, I'm not really supposed to talk to people that aren't weres."

Gabrielle frowned, "Why is that?"

She sighed, "Because my uncle doesn't like normals."

Lenora chuckled, "I'm not sure we count as normal. But if you don't want to talk."

Sylvie sat down after watching Lenora's tail drift lazily back and forth. "You don't feel like a were."

She chuckled, "Oh, you noticed my tail, it's nothing more than cotton and spell work. It's sort of fun to have."

Gabrielle sniffed the air, "You smell nice."

Lenora rolled her eyes, "Don't mind her, she is a little weird."

Sylvie glanced at Lenora, "How come you have a leash?"

"Because it's Halloween and it's sort of fun."

"I see."

Gabrielle trailed her fingers in the pond. "So why talk to us if you aren't supposed too?"

"I was curious about the costume."

Gabrielle smiled as her other hand trailed along Lenora's shoulder. "I happen to like it."

Lenora rolled her eyes for like the fiftieth time that night. "It's nice plus it's about the least amount of clothes I could get out of the house with. So what do you like doing in your free time?"

"I like to paint. I'm even sort of good at it."

Gabrielle's smile turned to a frown, "I'm sensing trouble coming."

Sylvie was just about to respond when she noticed Gabrielle stiffen and glance toward the darkened hallway that Sylvie had come out of earlier.

The rather large tattooed man if you could call him a man for he had feral cat eyes and elongated fangs. He glanced with disdain at Lenora and Gabrielle before looking back at Sylvie, "Get away from that trash, you stupid bitch."

Sylvie shuddered away from the guy in fear.

Lenora bristled and stood up. "Hey, that's no way to talk to your niece."

The man glanced down at the little girl in the cat costume. "Don't tell me how to deal with my clan you human whore." He reached out a hand to grab Sylvie.

Lenora stepped in front of the Sylvie to partially shield her. "Leave her alone you big meanie head."

Xander was walking back from the bathroom when he felt a small electric buzz come from the bracelet that reported on the safely of the children. He felt a great deal of shock when he noticed Lenora's gem shift to mortal danger. He started frantically running in the direction the bracelet was pulling him.

Had the man been a normal human Lenora might have been able to dodge but as it was she barely saw the hand that reached out impossibly fast and slammed into her chest.

Gabrielle watched her sister crumple to the ground as the large man grabbed Sylvie roughly by the shoulder and started dragging her away. She couldn't understand for a moment what had happened. It was like time slowed down. She watched her sister fall in slow motion. Her little body falling to the ground to lay broken on the cold stone. A small detached part of her noticed that Lenora's tail stopped moving as she hit the ground.

The man laughed as he turned away. Sylvie's face wore a mask of horror as she saw what had happened to Lenora even as she was dragged away.

The monster didn't expect much retaliation from a scared little child so it was quite the surprise when he felt the agony of a silver blade pierce his back and slam into his left lung with the force of a falling tree. He was further taken off guard when his knee was almost severed with the same silver blade. His weretiger reflexes were the only thing that allowed him to turn to face his assailant as she drove the knife into his shoulder with a display of strength far beyond what he thought a human let alone a child should have. The thing that chilled him to the bone was the crimson and black mist in the girl's eyes. Eyes that spoke of eternal torment in the fires of hell. He briefly grabbed her knife hand before she used the other to grab a hold of his crotch and crush with supernatural force. His hand fell weakly away as she drove the blade into him again and again with a sort of manic glee.

Sylvie lay against the wall watching in shock as a blood covered girl no taller than her stabbed her uncle again and again with a silver blade. She took the opportunity when the girl paused to knock the knife out of Gabrielle's hand. She scurried back away from her uncle as Gabrielle started pounding her fists into the guy.

Xander rounded the corner to see a blood soaked Gabrielle pounding the life out of a man bleeding to death. His heart almost stopped when he saw Lenora's body laying there. He spared a quick glance to make sure the man was no further danger to Gabrielle. He rushed over to check on Lenora. He frantically checked her pulse and sagged with relief as he found one.

Gabrielle was so busy pounding the tar out of the creature that had hurt her Lenora that she barely noticed that someone had picked her up, that is until her little fists stopped hitting the man responsible for harming her Lenora. She cried frantically, "Put me down."

Xander held her to his chest tightly as Gabrielle started to cry, "He has to pay… He has too."

"Lenora is going to be okay baby, she honestly will. I think he might have paid enough."

"It's not enough, never enough."

Xander whispered into her ear the one thing he could think of that would make her stop before she did something he hoped she would regret. "I know honey but if you keep hitting him he will just be dead and can't suffer any more."

Gabrielle closed her eyes and shook with fury for a brief minute before allowing herself to collapse into an exhausted sleep. Xander didn't notice the silver knife fade to nothingness as Gabrielle fell asleep.

Lexie had lost her overly large clown shoes somewhere in her frantic dash to find Lenora. She stopped as she came to a blood splattered scene of carnage. She noticed Xander was holding a sleeping Gabrielle and was trying to calm an extremely frightened girl down. Her heart lurched as she noticed the small amount of blood dripping from Lenora's mouth. She ran to where Lenora lay, knelt down on the cold ground and wove delicate flows of magic into her. Her face twisted into a concentrated look as she worked to repair the damage to Lenora's ribs and left lung. Xander relaxed slightly when Lexie stood. "She going to be okay?"

Lexie nodded, "Only because I healed her, she had a couple of broken ribs and a punctured lung. She would have quickly bled out if we hadn't either used magic or gotten her to a hospital."

Xander frowned, "You know it's creeps like this that give lycanthropes bad names."

Sylvie looked at the body of her uncle, "Can you save him?"

Xander glanced at Lexie, "I don't know. He has lost a lot of blood."

Lexie wove her magic over him, "I could save him, but I think with the amount of silver that got into his blood it would be a kindness not to save him."

She nodded, "Please save him."

Xander nodded, "Maybe he will change." His thoughts raced, "You don't deserve the afterlife."

Lexie sighed as she wove her healing magic. With one last thought of what happened to Lenora she crushed the little voice in her head that told her she could use magic to pull the silver particles out of his blood to save him a lifetime of agony. "Take the girls and find Willow. It's going to take a long time to put this ba… guy back together again." Lexie split the flows of magic and used air to tie the guys thrashing limbs to the floor. "No sense in taking chances."

Xander picked up both girls and turned to look at Sylvie, "Can we go someplace nicer?"

Sylvie's beast stirred as she glanced around at all of the blood. "That might be good."


	13. Grey hats

Lindsey McDonald kept his face impassive with effort as he glanced around at the various wizards and witches running around the crowded ministry. He almost smirked as he noticed the strange stares his expensive suit and briefcase were receiving as he walked up to the help desk. He smiled at the pretty receptionist. "My name is Lindsey McDonald; I have an appointment with someone from the department of magical law enforcement."

The receptionist glanced at Lindsey, "I don't recognize you, have you registered your wand yet?"

Lindsey's face didn't even twitch as he lied smoothly, "I'm a squib, so no I haven't registered my wand on account of not having one."

Her face got even less friendly, "I'll have someone escort you." She reached down and pulled out a visitor's badge and tossed it to Lindsey.

He just barely avoided gnashing his teeth as he read the badge that said "Squib Visitor." He hated being ignored and treated like dirt, he sighed as a pompous looking redhead showed up to lead him through the long confusing corridors of the ministry of magic.

Percy Weasley smothered the chuckle as he led the muggle around the ministry hallways. "I hear you have evidence against Dolores Umbridge."

Lindsey's eyes twitched, "Rather well informed for an errand boy."

"I used to be Fudge's personal assistant. So I hear things." Percy's voice dropped to a whisper, "Just between us, you'll never make the charges stick."

Lindsey nodded, "Being well informed is always nice."

Lindsey's patience was at an end by the time Percy finally pointed out the door to the office of one of the members of the Wizengamot.

Lindsey walked in and glanced around. He noted the pockmarked young man sitting at a desk filled with a mountain load of paperwork. "I can see you're busy," He glanced at the name plate sitting on the desk, "Mister Udders, so I'll get right to the point."

The young man frowned at the stack of papers partially blocking his name plate, "It's Uddersmith."

Lindsey tried to not roll his eyes as the man pronounced his ridiculous name. "Ah yes, yes of course."

"Why are you here anyways, can't you see I have real work to do?"

Lindsey set his briefcase on top of a sturdy looking pile of papers. "I have evidence recorded via a pensive that Dolores Umbridge used banned equipment to torture students. A quill that used a students own blood to write messages as punishment. My client would like a public apology as well as her termination from all future ministry employment."

Mr. Uddersmith frowned, "You can't honestly expect to have a long standing member of the ministry fired for something as simple as a misunderstanding involving a charmed quill."

Lindsey nodded, "That by itself probably not but we also have evidence of her willingness to use an unforgivable to torture information out of a student."

He frowned, "That's a serious charge you bring against Dolores, she was my mentor you know."

Lindsey clicked open his brief case and pulled out a sealed vial of a silvery liquid. "I have proof here, if you would like to see it."

Mr. Uddersmith smiled, "You honestly think that will ever see the light of day? You know the problem with sending a squib?" He pulled his wand quickly and flicked it at the vial, "Evanesco"

Lindsey watched in slight shock as the ministry employee used what might be termed W&H tactics as he vanished the record of the evidence. Privately he thought the idea of vanishing evidence was wishful thinking in this case. "You know that isn't going to change things? Besides I'll just report this incident to your superiors."

"Ah, but see you aren't going to remember this or much of anything else for that matter, Obliviate." Mr. Uddersmith smiled as Lindsey looked blankly at him. "I'll take the case under advisement. I'm sure one of the pages will help you to the door."

Lindsey nodded with a blank look on his face before leaving the office. It wasn't until he had left the ministry premises entirely that his mouth twisted up with a snarl. He pulled out his cell and scrolled down the menu. He waited a minute for the phone to connect.

"Yo, Bloodfire here."

"The Dark Princess's tattoos work against their damn memory spell."

"Please tell me we are going with plan B?"

"Yeah, tell the Smurf to deal with Umbridge."

"What no fancy legal tactics?"

Lindsey frowned, "No, I think you guy's old methods are better in this case."

"I've been telling them that for years."

Lindsey sighed as he clicked the phone shut. "I guess Lorne was right, old habits die hard. Oh wait, I don't care." He smiled at the thoughts of the carnage to follow.

Meanwhile across town in Borgin and Burkes Illyria found herself looking at a particularly annoying piece of muck. The stooped oily-haired man wasn't even standing straight up to face her. He should have been groveling at her feet ready to give her anything she wanted, but instead he was yelling at her with his snide voice that he wasn't going to give out secrets. She frowned over at her "partner" the bleached blond vampire casually leaning against a shelf talking quietly into his cell phone. She absently noted that his face lit up as he said "Plan B?"

Spike grinned as he clicked the phone shut. "I guess the Snakes mission didn't go well. So it's time to activate plan B. Though I think I want some of these darks arts books I've been hearing so much about."

Borgin glanced at Spike for a second then slammed his hands on the table for attention. "We don't sell to your filthy kind, mudblood."

Spike winced as Illyria's gaze dropped from merely frosty to artic cold. "You shouldn't have said that."

Illyria paused for a brief minute as if to argue with herself before with a flash she pulled her dagger from her belt and slammed it through Borgin's right hand pinning it to the table. "I have existed since before your race crawled out of the muck at my feet. I will not suffer your insults. The Dark Princess said I was supposed to pay for the dark arts books, but I figure what she doesn't know isn't going to hurt her." She glanced over the sniveling mans head toward the back wall. "There are strong magics coming from behind that wall."

Spike frowned as the blood poured from the wound in the guys hand. "That's a waste of blood." He shrugged, "It probably tastes like oiled shit anyways." Spike's trench flourished as he jumped the counter and started examining the wall for hidden latches on the shelf that took up most of the wall.

"Muck you will tell me how to open the vault."

Borgin snarled at Illyria as he frantically tried to pull the dagger out with his uninjured hand, "The aurors will be here shortly."

Illyria ignored him as she grabbed an edge of the solid wooden counter and with a horrible wrenching sound ripped a large section of it off the ground and lazily tossed it out of her way. "Out of my way."

Spike quickly got out of her way as she grabbed the shelf and tore it off the wall.

Borgin sputtered as he stared open mouthed at the gapping hole in the wall, "Impossible, I put protection charms on it."

"Obviously they suck. Oh and quit your whining." He backhanded Borgin across the face. As Borgin fell unconscious Spike turned to watch Illyria step through the wreckage to survey the vault filled with dark arts books and other things viewed as too dark to be on the front shelves. Spike chuckled as a volley of spells slammed into Illyria's form caused her to pause.

"Pathetic, if this is all their wards can do, I can see why Voldemort is such an issue." Illyria tilted her head to the side slightly, "You sure I can't just kill him?"

Spike chuckled, "I suppose you could. But do you really want to waste your time tracking him down?"

"Fine we wasted enough time anyways. The Dark Princess can sort through the take." Illyria raised her hand and created a portal that ran along the ground.

Spike frowned, "She's going to be sad if things break."

"She'll get over it, besides the code names are stupid."

Spike shrugged, "Yeah but there is no reason to tell your enemies who you are."

She frowned, "I do not like hiding."

He nodded, "Soon Blue, we will be able to stop hiding. The carnage that awaits that day will be spectacular."

She gestured to the spatial fold, "You should go. You don't want to get blamed for what I'm going to do to Umbridge."

"Best of luck on your artwork. Just make sure Fred is sleeping while you work." He chuckled as he jumped through the closing portal.

Illyria nodded; she had come to an accord with the spirit that shared her body with. It wasn't a perfect partnership but it allowed her most of her original power so it wouldn't do to upset the morals of her guide, well overly much.

Gabrielle woke with a groan. "Anyone get the name of the demon that ran over me?"

Willow chuckled, "I think that would be you using too much magic. Here take a drink of water."

Gabrielle took a few hesitant sips. "Is Lenora okay?"

"She's fine, she woke up a bit ago and is eating breakfast. You've been out of it all night."

As she tried to sit up Gabrielle noticed that she was wearing an unfamiliar set of pajamas. She sniffed the arm of the pajamas, "Sylvie, is she okay?"

Willow blinked even as she made a mental note to have Wolverine talk to Gabrielle about her senses. She had had slight clues that something was odd about them for a while but hadn't wanted to press the issue. "Sylvie is a bit shaken up. I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen to her."

"What do you mean?"

"Once her uncle recovers he will probably press for her to be released to his custody."

Gabrielle tensed, "He can't have her, he is going to hurt her…"

Willow sighed, "It's not up to us Gabi, we aren't in control in this world."

"I know we aren't…"

Willow sighed, "If it makes you feel better it might take him a while to be on his feet. Xander said that you hit him pretty good with your magic. I guess the combat training was a good thing. You're very special to me, Pumpkin." She leaned over and hugged Gabrielle, "I'll be right across the hall telling your siblings that you're awake."

"Thanks mom."

Gabrielle frowned as her mother left. She only had vague memories after watching Lenora fall to the ground, something about conjuring a dagger and lots and lots of blood. She shuddered as she closed her eyes for a brief second.


	14. Wards

Illyria found herself slightly annoyed as she read the front page of the latest wizarding paper. She had snagged it from the kitchen table where Hermione had left it. She glanced at Spike who was lounging against the side of the house avoiding the last rays of sunlight. She briefly glanced across the yard where Gabrielle and Willow were huddled around a drawn map of the Granger's place. Her whispered words barely carried to Spike as she absently crushed the paper in her right hand. "How am I supposed to make a name for myself when the ministry blames my artwork on Voldemort?"

Spike chuckled a touch before nervously glancing over at Willow, "It's for the best Illyria, though really I don't think you should go around claiming to have ripped the skull off a ministry employee and used their blood to write 'I must not tell lies' on the wall of their office. It wouldn't do to upset certain people."

She nodded absently as she unfolded the crumpled paper and poked at it savagely, "It says Ministry of Magic employee savagely killed by dark wizards, it could at least give the details. I mean I ripped her whole damn spine out…" She tilted her head slightly as she looked curiously at Spike, "What did you do with the skull anyways?"

He grinned, "Oh that, well I sent it to Draco Malfoy with a note saying it was his dear old mother's."

"Was that your twisted idea or hers?"

He grinned, "Mine, let's not share that though."

Willow glanced up from the blueprints for the wards on Hermione's parent's house. "Any idea what Blue and Spike are talking about?"

Gabrielle chuckled, "Maybe they are just trying to figure out what to get you for the holidays."

"Oh, so are you going to give me any hints?"

Gabrielle smiled up innocently at Willow, "Oh please mommy, you always tell me that eavesdropping is wrong."

Willow shook her head, "Where did I go wrong?" She chuckled at the frown on Gabrielle's face. "We should get back to figuring out how to ward the place."

"What you don't trust all of the wards auntie Hermione placed on this place?"

"For her age she's one of the best witches around but she is still limited in that her magic comes from books in this world." Willow waved a hand around idly.

Gabrielle nodded, "I've been doing some reading. Some of the new dark arts books Spike picked up for me talk about breaking wards. It mentions various ways the ministry has to slip past wards or to outright break them. It might be a good idea if we helped auntie's wards a bit."

Willow glared at Spike until a shiver went down his spine. "Do I want to know where he got the books, or if they are dangerous?"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "Give me a little credit mom. I had uncle Bill go through them first for dangerous hexes and enchantments. He found a few, he made me look them all up and write out the counter curses to them all. I could have just ripped the spells apart and he knows it but he said that looking things up and writing them out is good practice." She tapped her foot idly. "Why do adults do that?"

Willow nodded, "So that you'll learn. I'm glad you thought of going to an adult at least. So I guess I shouldn't be too upset that you talked Spike into getting you more spell books. How come you didn't ask me?"

"Ah sure mom, can you get me some potentially dangerous dark arts books because I want to do some illegal research into wards and experimental charms… Yeah that would have went over well. Normally I would ask Auntie Hermione about books but well she is a bit too straight laced about rules sometimes."

"I'll feel a lot safer when we strengthen the wards. Erm, wait what did you say about experimental charms? Hold it young lady." Willow pasted her resolve face on as she glared at her daughter. "Just what are you working on that requires experimental charms?"

Gabrielle let out a overdramatic sigh, "Rats, I was hoping to slip that by you. I was seeing if I could find any information on golems."

Willow blinked, "Golems? Okay now you lost me."

"I was going to see if I could figure out how to enchant a golem in such a way as to let someone in a painting control it."

"So that someone like Lily, James or Sirius could have some freedom outside their painting? You know that's going to take years to get all of the details right?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "I have plenty of time, besides I need a new project now that Wolverine is finished torturing me."

"He wasn't torturing you. He was helping you fine tune your senses."

"Same difference."

"You sure you aren't just sad because a certain cat girl had to go home?"

Gabrielle nodded, "Maybe so, I mean we traded email addresses, pictures and such things but it was nice having someone else to talk to. Plus she gave me some really nice paintings that she did while she was staying with us." She just hoped that her mom wouldn't find out about the types of photos they had exchanged.

"Maybe you do need a bit of a project to distract yourself with. Just be sure to include your siblings."

She smiled and was already planning her next project, "Maybe they could help with some of the research."

Willow ran a hand through Gabrielle's red hair and smiled, "Maybe so, but we have some long hours of work first. That is if you want to help?"

"Sure mom, how can I help?"

"Take the plans around with the your siblings and make sure all of the new crystal torches you all worked so hard on are placed around the perimeter of the property. We're going to use them to tie the wards too."

"Is that why we had to work so hard on carving the bloody things?"

Willow chuckled, "Watch you're language missy, and yes."

Gabrielle hurried inside to find the twins, while she got along well enough with the twin's grandparents, she sometimes wished that she knew her mother's parents better or that they were more grandparenty. They at least were grandparent age unlike Lenora and Lillian's. She had only met her grandparents once or twice in her whole life. She considered it once because according to her mother they visited them once when she was three. But by her line of reason, that didn't count because she couldn't remember. Still she tried to give the twins as much time as possible with their grandparents as time was sliding by slowly for her father's world. While summer was nearing the end of what was her father's fifth school year in his world, time was marching steadily by in her mother's home world. She had heard her mother explain why time moved strangely but it was more complicated than she cared to think about, besides Lenora had been playing footsies at the time and she was a bit distracted.

Hermione smiled at her parents as Gabrielle peeked her head in and politely held up a hand, "Sorry to interrupt but I could use the twin's help with setting up stuff for the wards."

Hermione smiled and made shooing motions, "Go on scat."

Hermione's mother's smile faded slightly as the children left the room. "I feel like such a horrible mother, grandmother even for not being around more. These last few weeks have been great, but it's shocking to say goodbye to the children one day only to have them appear the next day or the day after with months of new stories to tell."

Her father nodded slightly from his seat, "I knew that your letter from Hogwarts was going to make things interesting. I just wasn't sure how interesting. I'm proud of you for taking things in stride like you have, even if things aren't turning out like I thought they would."

Her mother nodded absently, "Like marry a nice dentist and have a bunch of children."

Hermione shrugged, "While I think dentistry is an honorable profession I think demon hunting has better stories."

Her father chuckled, "Dentistry is probably safer, though there was that one time we had to do some work on that rugby team after a particularly brutal round of pub hopping, it was a bit touch and go for a while there."

Her mother rolled her eyes, "So will the wards your friends are placing keep us safe?"

Hermione nodded, "They are at least as good at magic as my professors at school. Willow is placing enough wards around this place to stop an army of monsters."

Her father raised his eyebrow in question, "Are we going to have to worry about an army of monsters?"

She shook her head, "Of course not. I'm sorry that the wards are needed in the first place."

He shook his head, "Don't apologize for doing the right thing and standing up for what you believe in."

Hermione smiled even as she hugged her father, even if her parents couldn't spend as much time around as she would like, it was nice to be loved.

Outside, Illyria impassively watched the line of magic dance from torch to torch as Willow and Gabrielle worked their spell. She knew that it was soon approaching the time that her presence here would have a use. She glanced at Spike, "Perhaps you should test the wards first?"

Spike glanced at the rune etched torches that lined the exterior of the property. "There is no way that I'm going to cross that line. I don't want to burst into flame then turn to ash. Don't tell me you're afraid of a mortal's wards?"

Illyria frowned, "I am not afraid, were it anyone else's wards…"

Willow's voice could clearly be heard, "Try the wards Illyria."

She nodded briskly then reached out and pressed a hand against an invisible barrier. She pushed against it for a few seconds before it gave like Jell-o and her hand slid through it with just a touch of resistance. She stepped forward a few more steps. "The barrier does not do enough. Some one could walk right in and kill everyone inside."

Spike's eyebrows shot up in surprise as he noticed the whole line of torches near Illyria ignite with black and purple flames at her poorly chosen statement. He tossed himself backwards even as magical energy arced along the torches and slammed into the god king with enough energy to toss her like a rag doll twenty feet from the border of the property.

Illyria frowned as she regained consciousness. She found herself disconcerted by the fact that she had no memory of how she ended up flat on her back. She frowned as she tried to force her arm to obey her. She concentrated on getting her fingers to move. She didn't quite sigh with relief as the fingers slowly started responding to her directions. "Your wards should be sufficient to keep the muck of this world out of your friend's home. I was unprepared for such strong magics." She pulled herself off the ground. Her clothes morphed into her armor as she turned to leave.

Lenora and Lillian smiled at Gabrielle. Lenora grinned brightly as she rested a hand on Gabrielle's shoulder. "Gabi made sure all of the crystals that powered the torches were extra charged after we made them."

Illyria frowned even as she stalked off into the night, "I wish to do violence against something."

Willow glanced at Spike.

He waited until she was out of hearing, "I think the wards hurt her more than she thought they would, she should be her normal arrogant self by morning. I should probably make sure she doesn't get into any trouble."

Willow chuckled as Spike stalked off after Illyria. "I think they do a remarkable job keeping each other out of trouble."

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "Just remind me to not spar Illyria for a while."

Lenora nodded, "She is a bit scary some times."

Lillian shrugged, "All of the adults are."

Gabrielle stage whispered, "I think that's what happens when you get old."

Willow swats playfully at Gabrielle's backside, "Get inside and have some ice cream before your bedtime."


	15. Magic marbles

Lenora's attention wandered slightly as she walked along the deck that surrounded the house in the between dimension and caught sight of Gabrielle's meditating form. She supposed that to the simple outside observer the strange multi colored mist outside the opened windows around the deck would be the strangest part of the scene. Then again the fact that there was a young sky clad girl sitting meditating surrounded by softly glowing candles would also look rather strange she supposed. She looked to have just stepped out of a pool with her long wet red hair trailing drops of water down her pale back. It was however it would look to an outsider a rather normal sight to Lenora these days.

She knew that the strange people outside had weird ideas about modesty. Lenora on the other hand found the fact that she could sense her sisters magic at all, to be interesting. She knew that meant that her sister was using a great deal of magic as she reached out to the mist.

Gabrielle raised her hand without looking up from her meditating. She gestured toward the mist. At her gesture a tendril of the mist flowed through the opened window before spiraling around in a pretty swirl of color. Lenora watched in fascination as the mist touched the smooth skin of her sister's hand before the edge of it sank into the flesh of her sister's outstretched hand.

Lenora quietly watched the magic continue to flow into Gabrielle and play just under her skin for a time before she caught sight of Gabrielle's other hand. In it the mist was billowing out of the palm of her hand before slowly condensing into a vibrant sparkling multihued gemstone about the size of a large marble. "It's lovely."

After the marble was done forming Gabrielle glanced up with a faint smile. "It is neat looking."

Lenora frowned, "What are you going to do with it?"

Gabrielle winced as she stood up from her sitting position. "I'm not sure, I figure I'll put it with the rest of my magic marbles for a rainy day."

Lenora placed a hand on Gabrielle's shoulder as she regained her balance.

"It's going to be a very rainy day when you have to use them all isn't it?"

Gabrielle nodded absently then smiled, "Nothing wrong with being prepared."

"I guess not. I just wish I could tell mom that I found a way to stick more magic into my magic marbles without telling her how." She sighed, "I don't think she would approve of my drinking magic in, in order to condense it."

Lenora frowned, "Doesn't aunty Willow and Dawn borrow from outside sources?"

Gabrielle nodded, "But, it's hard to convince her," She tapped her chest with her free hand, "that the magic in the mist isn't dangerous."

Gabrielle smiled down at the warm hand that was still resting on her shoulder. "So I've a while before mom gets back from her latest mission and finds me some homework, do you want to play some video games or watch a movie?"

"I guess, can we watch the Princess Bride again?"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "You're such a girl."

"Just because I like a happy ending. Besides you enjoy the sword fights."

Gabrielle chuckled as she rested her arm around Lenora as they wandered their way back inside, "So I do."


	16. Dueling girls

Bode smiled as she closed her eyes and listened to the clash of swords with delight. After a few minutes time, she opened her eyes and glanced around the practice area. She grinned at what she saw. In the center of the room two armor clad children fought.

Lenora was scowling behind her face mask. She hated the bulky padded armor that they were forced by their parents to wear for their weapons practice. Though what she really hated was the mandatory sword practice against her twin. It wasn't that she hated practice, she would have gladly fought Rose or William twice or even one of the instructors but she hated fighting Lillian. It was like fighting a mirror in too many ways. Though at least there was a chance of winning unlike fighting Gabrielle. She still vividly remembered her last match with Gabrielle from over a year ago. As point after point was scored against her she still remembered screaming at her sister to stop using magic to win. The fact that Gabrielle didn't have to use magic to wipe the floor with her was only made less bitter by the fact that she was better than a good deal of the slayers that passed through the hotel.

Lenora grinned as she swung her sword in a sweeping arc at her sister and concentrated to change her sword into a claymore. Her new long sword flowed like molten metal for a split second before it settled into it's new shape.

Lillian let out a small gasp as her fingers in her right hand went numb from the force of her hasty block of the larger sword with her smaller blade. Her good natured smile turned to a frown behind her safety mask as she looked at Lenora's large blade. She knew that Lenora wouldn't be able to use it for long due to the weight but she also knew that she wasn't going to be able to block it much longer either. She was a touch worried that her twin had been increasingly motivated to win lately and was pulling every trick she had out of her hat.

Lenora smiled, "You can give up you know."

Lillian sighed as she switched the blade to her left hand, "I'm not giving up."

"Oh please, you can hardly beat me with your right hand, what makes you think you can beat me with your left?"

Lillian slid to the left trying to keep some distance between her and her twin. "I'll think of something."

Lenora smirked behind her mask, "You're always thinking too much at times like these."

Lillian blinked as she realized that she hadn't been thinking, just reacting for a while. She quickly went over the rules in her head, no using magic on yourself or your opponent. She knew that the using it on yourself rule was mostly because otherwise Gabrielle would boost her already borderline supernatural abilities way into the realm of the supernatural. 'How does the rules help me though. Wait there isn't a rule against magic, just using it directly against your opponent.' She smiled as she relaxed. "Oh, I think I'll win just fine."

Lenora frowned and figured that she should end the fight before the feeling in her sister's hand returned, beside the increased weight and length of the claymore while not as great as a real claymore was still awkward in the extreme. She was startled by a flash of light as her sister darted in and swung at her. She tried desperately to pull her blade back into a position to block even though she knew it wasn't going to be enough.

Bode winced as Lillian's blade smacked into her sister's practice armor hard enough to hear across the room. She shouted, "Fights over."

Lenora pulled off her helmet and glared at her sister, "You cheated."

Lillian smiled and shrugged as she adapted her favorite line from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie that she liked so much, "Witch."

Lenora tried to keep a glare on her face as the humor of the situation caused her smile to break through. "Still you aren't supposed to use magic."

Lillian smiled and took on a lecturing tone that was very like their mother, "Actually the rules say that we can't use magic on ourselves or our opponents, they make no mention of conjuring and igniting flash powder or simply creating a light to distract our opponent. So technically I won."

With a touch of Lenora's concentration her blade reverted to it's normal dagger size and shape. "Fine I'll just have to work harder next time."

"If you want to be technical, you're the one that started the cheap tricks by changing your blade."

"But they are enchanted to do that. Besides we have the same type of blades, so it's fair."

Bode grinned, "Perhaps you ladies should finish your argument later. Gabrielle and Rose have scheduled the ring for the next bit."

Lenora frowned, "I still don't understand why Rose chooses to fight her. There have got to be easier fights to get credit for."

Rose smiled as she and Gabrielle walked into the room in time to catch the last statement. "Honestly it's because the more you fight the better you get."

Gabrielle grinned as she good naturally teased her sisters, "She might not be better than me but she tries harder than you two."

Lenora glared, "Oh really? You think you're so good that you could take us both out at once don't you?"

Rose shook her head, "Don't take that bet Gabrielle."

Bode frowned, "Girls I'm not sure that's the best idea."

Gabrielle frowned, "Well now that you mention it."

Lenora frowned, "Well what's the bet going to be?"

Rose sighed, "You guys are crazy but at least if she fights you first there is a better chance of scoring a point against her when I fight her."

Gabrielle shrugged, "Well we are starting Hogwarts soon, we are going to be stuck in that school for months. If I win you two have to talk Dawn into giving us a pass so we can have a quiet romantic dinner date some place nice, oh and you have to pay for dinner and a nice dress for me."

Lillian nodded before deciding to voice an objection, "What if we can't get Dawn to give us a pass?"

"Then I guess we will just have to have a nice picnic in one of the paintings."

Lenora considered the bet for a bit, "What do we get if we win?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "What would you like?"

Bode glanced at Rose and whispered, "They always this bad?"

Rose shrugged, "Today's bets are rather tame, you should see them with cards."

Lenora and Lillian put their heads together and whispered a charm to keep Gabrielle from hearing their discussion.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "I'm sorry Rose you don't mind me fighting them first do you?"

"Nah it's alright, they've been keeping me awake the last couple of nights giggling over us finally getting to go to Hogwarts."

"At least I finally got a wand even if it is fake."

Rose reached over and laid a hand on Gabrielle's bare shoulder, "It's not fake it's just different than everyone else's."

"It's made out of a bunch of pieces of amethyst that I pulled out of several five dollar rocks of it, that I got at the fair. I melted them all together and made a wand and then stuffed one of my magic marbles into it to give it a core."

Rose shook her head, "I know you spent hours lovingly forming that wand and spent a great deal of time forming the core into a perfect shape inside so that the patterns it makes when light shows through it are breathtaking. So don't give me that crap about it being just a wand. Most wizard's and witches buy their wands. They do nothing more than toss a number of Galleons on the table, test out a few wands then go home. You've invested a lot of yourself into that wand."

Gabrielle sighed, "Which no one will ever see because I have to place an illusion over it so that it looks like a normal wand."

Rose chuckled, "You really don't like having to hide what you are do you?"

Gabrielle chuckled, "No, I'm proud to be a witch. Maybe I'm not a Hogwarts style witch but I'm proud of being able to use magic. I'm just sort of sad to be going to a place where we have already learned the first few years of work."

Bode busied herself with collecting Gabrielle's armor in order to give the girls some privacy.

Rose shrugged, "I'm sure that we will be able to learn something we missed, or to expand our understanding of spell theory by taking trips into the library. You're just bitter that you have to wear clothes there."

Gabrielle frowned as she played with the edge of her shorts, "I've started to like wearing shorts or a skirt with pockets but still it's weird to think that in another week I'll be stuck wearing clothes all the time."

Rose chuckled, "Yeah well you have enough in the chest department unlike the twins that you look like a girl, so I don't think you're going to get away with not wearing a shirt."

"You're just looking forward to chasing after all the cute boys."

Rose grinned, "I can't say that it won't be nice to have some cute guys around. William is a bit too much of a rapscallion to keep."

"So you're not going to find any cute girls?"

Rose shook her head slightly, "While I do find girls cute, I don't really think I do in the same way or degree as you and Lenora. I think I'll leave them all for you."

"What about Lillian?"

"I think at some point she will find a cute guy or girl that interests her and can put up with her being a book worm. I don't know that she cares about the packaging that much."

Rose grinned and quickly checked that Bode's back was turned toward them before she reached over and traced her finger along Gabrielle's left breast. She lowered her voice to a whisper, "I'm going to miss sleeping with you girls though, you make a decent pillow."

Gabrielle batted the hand away playfully after a second or two of enjoying the touch. "As nice as that feels I should concentrate on the upcoming fight if I don't want to lose."

Rose chuckled, "Probably should."

Bode walked back with Gabrielle's armor held in her hands, "We should really start work on better armor."

Gabrielle scowled as she started putting on the armor, "Anything would be better than these pads and plates."

Rose shrugged, "They help you keep the blood on the inside and the swords on the outside so they are a good thing."

Lenora and Lillian broke from their discussion with matching grins. "We think that if you lose you should have to cast a spell to give us invisibility for a day."

Lenora grinned, "I want a magical sword that does more than grow or shrink."

Gabrielle frowned, "That last one seems like a lot of work."

Lenora smirked, "So you're saying it can't be done?"

Gabrielle looked at Bode, "No I'm just saying it takes a lot of work to empower a blade to grant strength to it's user. But I guess if you win I could try."

Lenora glanced over at Lillian, "Alright I can agree to that."

Gabrielle smiled as she walked into the middle of the room and conjured two identical long blades out of thin air. "Let's party."

Lenora and Lillian sighed as they glanced at the dual blades. "This is going to hurt."

Rose smirked, "Don't be such a baby, you have armor for a reason."


	17. Worries

Harry Potter was for lack of a better term brooding. He wasn't sure how to feel about going back to Hogwarts. For the first time he would be leaving a home he loved to go back to a place filled with people that expected miracles. Well maybe not miracles but most of the people there expected him to save them from Voldemort. Not that he wasn't going to try or hadn't spent the last decade and some trying to prepare himself for the fight but he wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel. He wasn't sure he was ready to step back into that particular fight quite yet.

Willow leaned against the doorway as she watched Harry quietly for a few minutes. She thought that most girls would find him handsome what with his toned muscles, wild shoulder length black hair and brilliant green eyes. "You know it will work out don't you?"

Harry blinked up from his spot by the fireplace. "How is it going to work out? Because of us Professor Dumbledore will be dead in less than half a year instead of at least a year, Snape is going to be teaching defense against the dark arts and we are going to have a slug for a potions instructor. We have Malfoy, who in case you have forgotten is trying to break a bunch of death eaters into the school. So please explain how sending the children there is a good idea."

Willow shrugged, "The girls are perfectly capable of defending themselves from such mundane things as school bullies and the like. As for professor Dumbledore, he chose to spend time here teaching. It was his choice, besides I might be able to do something about that curse on his hand. As for Snape suck it up and show that you know what you're doing. You have way more skill than most people in their sixth year, so don't let the guy get to you. As for professor Slughorn, just tell him you aren't interested in his club or relax and go to his little parties. You aren't a child any more Harry, you can hold your own. You've been helping fight demons for years now."

"I know, it's just that I worry about things now that I'm going back in less than a week."

"You're just sad that you and Ginny aren't going to be able to share a bed every night."

"You can't tell me you aren't going to miss Hermione."

Willow shrugged, went over and flopped down onto the sofa opposite Harry's chair. "Of course I'm going to miss her, horribly and completely but that doesn't change the fact that if she wants to go back to school, I'm going to support her. I know what you're really worried about."

He raised an eyebrow, "Oh really?"

"You're concerned about your family."

"Didn't we just go over the fact that I'm concerned about the girls?"

"I meant you're concerned about the Dursley's safety, now that the death eaters know that you aren't staying there any more."

"After everything my "family" put me through, why should I care what happens to them."

"Because you're better than they are."

He sighed, "Fine, I'm worried about them alright. I don't want them to get hurt just because they sadly happen to be related to me."

"If it makes you feel better the order has people on it."

"I'm also worried about Hermione's family. I don't want anything to happen to them either."

"I know the wards will keep them safe. I'm just sad that the Dursley's would never consent to wards."

"I don't really ever want to see them again, but I'm past wishing them ill." Harry smiled, "They do enough of that on their own."

Willow smiled, "As I said to start with, nothing to worry about."

He frowned, "Other than looking a bit different than when I last left Hogwarts."

"You are a bit taller and a bit more filled out muscle wise, you look around the same in face being that your immortality kicked in when you reached your full height."

Harry frowned, "Wasn't it not supposed to kick in until we suffered our first death?"

Willow shrugged, "I never said the spell was perfect, besides isn't it better that way than having to die first?"

Harry grumbled, "I guess so."

"So have you decided what you're going to do with yourself once you get back to Hogwarts class wise?"

"I'm thinking about advanced Charms, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Transfiguration, and I'm probably going to take Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class as well. I don't want him to think we don't like him. It might even be fun. Besides as you've said, I've been fighting demons for the last several years how dangerous can it be compared to that?"

Willow chuckled, "I wouldn't think it could be worse. So do you think the children will like the school?"

"I'm assuming that they will like parts of it. Though I don't think they are going to like giving up their broomsticks."

She smiled, "I know Gabrielle loves flying around on her broom."

"I'm still amazed that she enchanted it herself."

"I think she got tired waiting for one of us to do it for her or buy her a broom. She spent weeks on that first broom looking in any book she could get her hands on that might have spells in it to enchant a broom. I remember her having to get Lexie to translate quite a few words."

Harry chuckled, "That's because she was all of six?"

She chuckled, "I'm going to miss my little munchkin."

"I'm sure once the excitement of the whole thing wears off she will miss you as well."

"I hope so."

Lexie grinned even as she ducked under the door frame to enter the room.

Willow turned to Lexie, "So what are you going to do once the children are gone?"

"I don't know, I might finally have some time to put that data we got from the S.G.C to good use." She sprawled out on the only free couch left. "The children have been running me a bit ragged lately, I've been trying to keep up with all of their projects. It's a lot harder than it looks."

Harry chuckled slightly as he glanced at Lexie and Willow, "You know I'm going to miss the lovely amount of skin everyone shows around here."

Willow chuckled and tossed a pillow at Harry, "You're just a letch and I know for a fact that you think of her like a younger sister. So stop pretending otherwise."

He stuck the caught pillow behind his head, "Alright I'll stop teasing her. While she is a cute girl, she will always be like a younger sister."

Lexie shook her head, "You know if it was Andrew looking at me like you are right now he would be in a casket."

He smiled, "Yes but the idiot would make some stupid comment and be drooling like a dog right now."

Lexie sighed, "I still say there is something wrong with him. But anyways, if it's okay with you and Ginny, I might try to get in some dimension traveling with Lilyanne while the rest of you are away at Hogwarts to lessen the sting of her being too young to go."

Harry nodded, "Ginny might have mentioned that plan. I think it would help her out in the long run. Give her something to focus on other than trailing around her big sisters."

"I figure I might be able to collect some new tech to help with the star ship design that I've been working on for the last several years. I'm just sad that Neville is going back to Hogwarts. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't coincide with Rogue's extended vacation to her home world. A girl has needs you know."

Harry mock covered his ears, "I so didn't need to hear that."

Lexie stuck her tongue out at Harry, "I'm not a little girl anymore."

Willow chuckled, "This coming from the guy with how many children? Don't feel too bad we have the magical phones Dawn and I made. So we can stay in touch even when they're at Hogwarts."

Lexie grinned, "At least this way I'll have some peace and quiet."

Willow glanced crossly at her phone as it rang before she picked it up and flipped it open, "Willow speaking." She listened to the phone for a few seconds before bursting out, "Gunn, it's good to hear from you. How goes your project? Really? Let me put you on speaker phone."

Harry glanced at the phone as Willow set the phone on the end table, "I hope you have good news."

"I do have some good news. It took a bit of time but using the deeds from Harry's vault and some impressive legal finagling I was finally able to get the ministry to acknowledge that despite their desire to leave the Potter family home as a monument, they didn't own the land nor the building and had no right to keep it from Harry."

Harry nodded before he realized that you couldn't see a nod through a phone, "That's great news."

"Have you decided what you want to do with it yet?"

"I'm half torn between having it repaired and tearing it down and building something else there, like a tower."

"I'll be in town for the next couple of days working against some anti-werewolf legislation, so if you decide what to do with the property give me a call and I'll set it up."

Willow picked up the phone, "Don't worry we'll keep in touch."

"I think I'm going to go discuss what to do with the place with my parents."

Willow nodded, "Have fun with that. I think I might just stay here an enjoy the quiet setting for a while."

Lexie smirked, "Don't forget the view."

Harry shook his head even as he made his way out.

Willow watched the crackling fire for a minute before glancing back at Lexie's face. "So how did Gabrielle's bet with the twins go?"

Lexie blinked, "Who told you about that?"

"Rose might have mentioned it. But she didn't say who won."

"I only found out about it because Gabrielle was bitching about the twins cheating. After she explained the whole thing I fell out of my chair because I was laughing so hard. I told her that it served her right for all the times she had cheated at games over the years. She didn't think I was that funny at first."

"So what happened?"

"Well Gabrielle won but lost at the same time. Apparently she had conjured her two blades at the start so after she won against the twins they claimed that she lost because she used magic to start with. They turned to Rose to solve things. She said that both sides had a point so it was declared that the match was a draw and that both sides would have to pay up on the bets."

Willow's face lit up with a smile, "That sneaky girl."

"What?"

"You didn't notice Rose's new dress did you? The one that looked suspiciously like one of Lillian's old dresses did you?"

"The twins bribed Rose didn't they?"

Willow's eyes were leaking tears of mirth. "It looks like."

"She is going to be rather mad isn't she?"

"Oh yeah…"


	18. Andrew's in trouble

Lilyanne half smiled as she looked around the room and remembered the frenzied packing that had taken place this morning as her sisters stuffed various last minute items into their trunks in preparation for their trip to Hogwarts via the Hogwarts' train. It annoyed her that she wasn't able to go just because she was a year younger than her siblings were. She glanced over at a tear-stained piece of parchment resting on her writing desk. She remembered every word of Dumbledore's polite refusal to her petition to be admitted a year early. She quickly glanced away from it before she got the urge to blast it apart. She knew he was just following rules but it didn't make her feel too much better about it.

She glanced over at Gabrielle's large bed where she had spent many nights curled up with her sisters listening to stories. She blushed slightly as she remembered the noises that had been coming from Gabrielle's large bed the night before. Gabrielle and the twins had came back from their date late last night and promptly closed the curtains. She muttered, "They could have at least done the silence charms right."

She sighed as she realized that she was going to miss her crazy siblings. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the doorframe. She turned and glanced over at her "uncle" that was waiting in the hallway, "Uncle Xander." She grinned even as she made a running leap at Xander.

Xander grinned at the uncle part before grunting as he caught Lilyanne out of the air. He gave her a brief hug before setting her back down. "Feels a bit empty in here though doesn't it?"

Lillyanne nodded, "Quieter that's for sure. And thanks again for taking us to the amusement park yesterday."

Xander grinned, "It's the least I can do for my favorite nieces and nephews."

She chuckled quietly, "We are your only "nieces" and "nephews".

He shrugged, "Doesn't mean you aren't special."

She frowned, "So what do you think they are up to right now?"

He shrugged, "Probably changing into their Hogwarts robes, maybe they are even at the point where they are getting on boats to ride across the lake."

She nodded, "It sounds like such fun."

"Next year you'll be able to go and see." His eyes glanced over her bare, lightly freckled body. "You know speaking of clothes, you should probably put some on and head to the meeting room I hear you have a very important mission."

She blinked and looked it him critically, "A mission for me? You aren't just joking?"

He smiled, "Nope, very important I hear."

Her face burst out into a grin as she ran to the clothes chest by her bed and pulled out a simple green dress.

Xander glanced away as she pulled it over her head and rearranged her long auburn hair. He chuckled as she ran out of the room barefoot with a hurriedly said, "Bye Xander." He knew it wasn't fair to not tell her that she wasn't going to like the mission but he hoped that it would at least take her mind off not being with her sisters.

Lexie sat in the council room glaring death glares at everyone. "No, I don't wanna." She sighed, "I don't like him and I don't care that he is an expert on this particular world. How come I have to go to this particular world and deal with this slayer?"

Willow sighed, "Because I can't, I have some important treaty negotiations to deal with in another world, besides you lost the coin toss."

"That's only because you cheated."

Willow smiled, "Prove it. Besides weren't you the one mentioning that you needed a new challenge now that most of the children are off to school."

"That was before I knew that you were sending me to the same damn world that Andrew was on."

"He has been living in that world for years now, diligently tracking down the slayer."

Lexie sighed, "So how come he can't just collect her?"

"His reports stopped coming in yesterday, so we decided to send you and Lilyanne in to find the slayer and rescue him."

"How come you're sending in Lilly?"

"Because she could use something to take her mind off things and a little adventure is a good thing. Besides, she is perfectly capable to take care of herself with her magic. Plus I figured you could use some company that you didn't want to shoot."

Lexie nodded, "I'm heading off to pack."

Later that day Xander was not having a good day. He knew that them having no problems loading the children on board the train meant that something else would go wrong for him. His luck wasn't great enough to have a perfect day especially after he had opened up his big mouth earlier and jinxed himself by saying that it went well. He was without much luck trying desperately to figure a way out of his current predicament. He figured he should be used to dealing with angry girls by now, but having an angry ten year old waving a magical wand around screaming at him about impossible missions and such was not his idea of fun. Especially when the girl's wand would occasionally leak sparks or crackle with energy as she made a particularly emotional point.

"You didn't say I had to keep Lexie from killing Andrew. You have any idea how much work that is going to be?"

"I know she doesn't like him much but really he isn't that bad."

Lillyanne raised her eyebrow as she glared at Xander, "Stop crossing your fingers behind your back while you say that."

Xander sheepishly uncrossed his fingers, "Fine, he is annoying but he is useful. It's not as if we had a lot of options for whom to send. Most of the girls that might have done all right had other things to do. As for the rest, can you really see Violet or Bode for that matter doing well in a technologically advanced world? Besides you have any idea how much he was whining to be the one sent for this mission once he realized that it was a Starwars like dimension."

She sighed, "I still don't understand how he found out about it anyways."

"That would be Dawn's fault she was visiting the new Watcher's headquarters in Scotland a few weeks ago, she might have mentioned it to him."

"Is she coming with us then?"

Xander smiled, "She might drop in later but she has a few things to take care of first."

Lilyanne frowned, "Wait a minute if he only found out about it a few weeks ago how has he been there a few years."

He smiled, "Well Dawn might have tossed him backwards in time when she opened the portal the first time. As you know, the nature of the world is a bit fluid the first time the portal is opened. If you want the technical reason for that, talk to Willow."

She sighed, "I'll start packing."


	19. A Ruby for a girl

Lexie grinned as she watched Lilyanne fidgeting with her goggles. She thought that Lilyanne looked sort of cute in her desert outfit complete with thick boots, robes and a silk scarf wrapped around her mouth to keep the sand out. Lexie on the other hand was relying on her slayer abilities to mitigate the worst of the heat, she wearing simple clothes bought from an army surplus store designed to protect against the hot weather. Lexie looked around the sand covered, goddess of water forsaken world that the portal had dropped them off at. "So Lily pad which way is north?"

Lilyanne pulled her wand from her sleeve, "Point me." She watched the wand spin briefly before stopping. She pointed off in a seemingly random direction. Her voice was slightly muffled by the silk scarf. "Looks like that way."

"Any way is better than standing out here in the middle of nowhere."

A few hours later Lexie had given up cursing Dawn's name as a waste of energy. She was just happy that Lilyanne could produce water with her magic, otherwise the trip would have been much worse as they had already had to fill up their large water bottles at least twice. Lexie grinned as they finally walked under the archway that lead into a city. It wasn't much to look at but at least it had shade.

Lilyanne grinned as she looked around at all of the various strange and unusual creatures. "At least it should be interesting, anything demonic?"

Lexie shrugged, "Not that I've noticed. We should probably look for a hotel of some type."

"I could do with a bit of a rest."

Lillyanne grumbled, they had only found one small room for rent in their frantic search of the city. Apparently most anyone that came here stayed on their ship.

Lexie winced as they entered the room and noticed the two small metal box beds pushed together in a corner next to a questionably clean pullout kitchen. Right near the entrance was an uncomfortable looking chair. She grumbled, at almost six and a half feet tall she had trouble finding decent sleeping arrangements wherever she went. "Okay, there is no way that this is going to be comfortable. I'm going to go scout the area, if you could clean up the area with some magic I'll get you a treat while I'm out."

Lilyanne nodded, "Sure, I need a break, too much walking in a stupid desert. I'll clean up the mess for you but then I'm snagging a nap."

Lexie nodded before heading back out into the streets. She wasn't sure where she was going so she let her feet do the wandering. She was faintly surprised when twenty minutes or so later found her in an alley watching a young boy working on some large piece of machinery. It looked like some type of craft. She didn't sense any evil or anything demonic but there was something slightly off about the child. She shrugged as she pushed it to the back of her mind and continued on her walk.

The boy frowned as he looked up from his newest project and saw a very tall rather beautiful lady turning away. He had the oddest feeling that she had been looking at him. She didn't feel real, there was just something about her that seemed off. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind as he heard a voice shouting at him from inside the store. "Anakin where are those droid parts?"

"I'll get them Watto." He ran back inside pushing the strange lady to the back of his thoughts.

Lilyanne woke to a feeling of being watched. She yawned and slowly stretched after she realized it was just Lexie. "What do you have for me?"

Lexie grinned as Lilyanne stretched her bare body out on the now cleaned bed, while she didn't feel 'much' sexual attraction for her charges they were still all rather cute in their own way. "Don't be a greedy girl, I got you some nice local fruit." She gestured to the various bags on the table. "As well as some supplies for dinner, and yes I did check to see if they were all edible. I figured anything else you wanted you could trade for. I'll even give you some things to trade. There are a suspicious number of trading posts in this town."

"It's a city in the middle of a desert what do you expect?"

"I don't know, just be careful when you're walking around I don't trust these people as far as you can throw them."

"You know I couldn't throw most of them an inch."

"My thoughts exactly. Now eat your fruit, I want to at least catch a nap."

Lilyanne crawled off the bed and headed over to the table to pick up the fruit and a knife. She absently cut into the cantaloupe like fruit as she watched Lexie strip out of her desert clothing. "You sure I can't just stay here and watch you sleep?"

Lexie rolled her eyes, "Get out of here you little nymph, and enjoy yourself before I decide to keep you for a pillow."

"We both know I'm too skinny to use as a pillow." Lilyanne's eyes rested on Lexie's chest, "While you on the other hand…"

Lexie chuckled as she tossed Lilyanne's wad of clothes at her. "Just get out of here before I get myself in trouble, and take your wand."

Lilyanne hurried to dress, after she finished, she snagged most of the fruit and rushed out the door with a grin on her face. She loved teasing her sisters' and her/their babysitter. Mostly because it was harmless fun. She knew that Lexie would never hurt her and it was sort of fun indulging in a bit of harmless flirting being that her sisters wouldn't flirt with her. It sort of hurt that they didn't flirt with her as they flirted with each other and most anything female other than the moms and some of the adults whom they knew wouldn't think it was funny.

She glided through the crowd with the help of a few notice me not charms. While not complete invisibility, which would have gotten her smushed, the charms allowed her to wander around without anyone taking too great an interest in a young lady alone on the streets. She pulled a small red crystal from her pocket and held it in her hand. "Point me." She watched as the crystal spun around on the palm of her hand before jerking to a halt to point toward the opposite edge of the city. An hour of twists and turns later she found herself outside a rather creepy carnival sized tent. She watched some well dressed wealthy looking traders enter the tent. She frowned as she saw a male of some demonic looking species come out of the tent almost dragging a young lady by a chain around her neck. She just barely stopped herself from jumping at or hexing the creature as she remembered that this wasn't her world and she didn't know the rules. She briefly wished that Gabrielle was here as she would know what to do. She sighed, she wasn't technically supposed to be looking for the slayer by herself but had figured a little look around wouldn't hurt. She straightened her shoulders, plastered a confident look on her face and walked in through the opening of the tent. The large burly demonic looking guards barely paid her any mind as she walked through.

Her doubts about whither or not she should be there fled as she glanced around the large tent at the great numbers of slaves displayed around the tent. She wasn't sure how many alien species there were but she figured more than a few weren't human. She quickly found an out of the way spot to try to come to grips with the insanity she was seeing. She knew she would have to talk to Lexie about this place but wanted to figure out if her slayer was a slave or part of the problem before talking with her. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself before walking over to the booth the crystal indicated.

Lillyanne was certainly not ready for the site that greeted her as she peered into the booth her crystal was pointing at. Her eyes slid away from a grotesque bloated worm or snake like demon creature with arms to the girl chained near it. She sucked in her breath as her eyes rested on a lovely bare-chested girl that couldn't have been that much younger than she was. Her pale skin looked free of blemishes or whip lashes unlike some of the other slaves in the area. The girl's long black hair trailed down her back and just barely brushed the top of the girl's tush. The only item of clothing other than the chain around her neck was a small silk red loin cloth that was barely a pinch short of transparent. Lilyanne was fascinated by the way the silk played against the girl's long legs. She wondered if Gabrielle got that same feeling of 'MINE' when she first looked at Sylvie. She wasn't sure what it was about the girl that entranced her so much, maybe it was the barest trace of the almost scrubbed away grease stains on the girl's fingers that was cute in an odd way, or maybe it was the fierce look of intelligence in the girl's eyes as she looked right at her despite the notice me not charms. She just knew that she couldn't leave her in here chained to the demon. She glanced worriedly at one of the other customers that seemed to be paying too much attention to the slayer girl. She whispered, "Confundus," she smiled as the guy wandered off with a lost expression on his face. With the barest twist of her mind she dismissed the notice me not charms. She pulled out one of the large rubies that Gabrielle had given her to get a present with when she left for Hogwarts.

Gardulla the Hutt almost grunted in frustration as a potential buyer wandered away. She blinked her large eyes in surprise as she noticed a girl at the edge of her booth with a large ruby in her hand. Just the size of the ruby not to mention the obvious quality made her mouth water. "What can I do for you?"

Lilyanne tried to keep the look of disgust off her face as she turned to look at the ugly creature talking to her. "I want the girl, how much?"

"I am sure we could come to some type of arrangement."

Lilyanne smiled as she walked out of the tent with the girl in tow. She was mildly proud of herself, it had cost her the large gemstone but she had acquired the girl and a number of republic credits in change, far fewer than she knew the gem was worth but still more than she had expected. She stopped after getting a good distance away from the tent and it's odd cliental. She wasn't exactly sure what to do now, she looked at the girl she had just bought. Her mind was quickly catching up with everything that was wrong with that statement. The girl wasn't dressed to be out in the harsh sunlight. "So what do you want to do now, and what is your name?"

The slave girl frowned, of all of the questions she had expected her new owner to ask her, that wasn't the first, well maybe the name thing. She wasn't sure what to think, the girl seemed nice but no one traded a ruby that large away without getting something in return. "My name is Breena Skywalker." She asked hesitantly, "What do you mean what do I want to do?"

Lilyanne rolled her eyes, "Well if we stay out in the sun much longer your very nice very pale tush is going to get roasted." She looked down at Breena's pathetically impractical sandals. "Besides, even auntie Buffy wouldn't be caught dead in those sandals in a place like this. So do you want to go shopping or get something to eat first?"

Breena shook her head, "I'm not hungry yet."

Lilyanne smiled, "Well shopping it is."

After a few hours of shopping, Breena was convinced that her new owner was a pervert, a nice pervert, but still a pervert. She came to this conclusion because of the intensity of Lily's gaze when she looked at her. She found it a bit weird that while Lily's glances sometimes included her behind or between her legs it was mostly her face where her gaze stayed. Breena was still trying to figure out if that was endearing or creepy.

Lilyanne smiled brightly as she watched Breena try on an outfit that would work for tromping around the desert. She didn't know how long she was going to have Breena for but she figured she might as well enjoy it while she had her.

Breena didn't want to push her new mistress's goodwill. "I think we have enough clothes now."

Lilyanne nodded, in an attempt to postpone she asked, "Is there somewhere else you would like to go?"

Breena shook her head, "No master."

Lily frowned, "Can you just call me Lily? That whole master thing is sort of creepy."

Breena nodded not wanting to piss her new owner off by objecting to such a simple if odd request.

"I should probably call ahead."

Thanks to the call ahead Lexie was dressed and waiting by the time an abashed Lilyanne led a slightly scared young girl into the room. Lexie's gaze went from the metal collar around the girl's neck down along the chain and finally to Lily's shaking hand. "You're going to have to explain this one."

Lily gulped, "She followed me home?"

"I think you're going to have to do better than that."

Lily rushed along with a panicked voice, "There was a large snake demon that was going to sell her to icky people for who knows what… I couldn't let that happen."

"Take a breath and start at the top again."

"I went wandering using the notice me not trick so people didn't bother me. I was trying to track down the new slayer. Anyways after walking through half the city I found this tent. It was horrible so many unhappy people trapped in cages or with chains. The crystal lead me to Breena here and I knew that I couldn't let her get sold to some icky old man or worse."

Lexie glanced over at Breena, "How long have you been a slave?"

"As long as I can remember." Her voice trembled, "Please don't send me back. I could work."

Lilyanne looked at Lexie pleadingly, "Please, she can stay with us can't she?"

Lexie rolled her eyes, "Of course she can stay, we might have to stick her in your room but she can stay."

Lilyanne nodded eagerly, "It's going to be so much fun. But first we should get this icky thing off her." She grinned brightly at the look of astonishment on Breena's face as she pulled out her wand and whispered "Alohomora."

Breena could have screamed with delight as the slave collar she had worn for years opened and fell away. She was a bit startled that the girl had used some force trick to open the slave collar. She wasn't sure what she had just gotten herself into but she knew it couldn't be worse than being sold to some twisted old man Gardulla would have liked.

Lexie suppressed a growl as she watched Breena running her fingers along her neck where the collar used to be. She realized with a shock, as she saw the girl's face, that Lily had just stolen the girl's heart by removing the slave collar. "I'm going to go out and look for any signs of Andrew. This might be a good time to get to know each other and share stories."

Lilyanne nodded, "I'll have dinner ready when you get back if I can figure out the oven controls."

Lexie nodded, "Maybe Breena can help you."

Breena nodded eager to prove her worth but not quite understanding what was so hard to understand about the standard controls on the oven. "I would love to." As Lexie left she pondered if Jedi had some special mind trick that allowed them to cook food without an oven so that they didn't have to rely on standard ovens. She was pulled from her musings on if they used their lightsabers to cook, when Lily asked her to help by cutting up an onion like bulb for dinner.

Lexie found herself wandering through the streets sorely tempted to not bother looking for Andrew and just say he didn't make it. She sighed and pushed the thought to the happy place in her mind that held the rest of her fantasies. She knew that she at least had to look for him but for some reason she had this creepy feeling that she wasn't going to like what she found. She couldn't place why it bothered her so much but in the several hours she had flashed around Andrew's picture at the bars she hadn't even got a glimmer of a spark of recognition from anyone.

Lily was faintly surprised to learn that Breena was a tech monkey like Lexie. They had happily spent the time it took to make dinner trading stories about their lives. They were happily working on seconds when a disappointed sand covered Lexie came back through the door. Lily glanced up from her food and Breena's latest story about her brother. "No luck? You swimming in the desert?"

Lexie shook some of the sand out of her hair angrily, "No, it was a Sandstorm, same fracking sandstorm that made everyone close up shop so I couldn't ask more questions. Not that anyone could tell me anything anyways. I don't think he even made it here. Or if he did, he left soon after.

Lily smiled and pointed to the food spread out on the table, "Have some food, it will cheer you up."

"I'll grab some, then I'm crashing out."

Lily chuckled waved her wand at Lexie and grinned as all of the sand fell to the ground in a pool.

Breena frowned at another example of magic as Lily called it. She wasn't sure it wasn't just the force but she wasn't going to question her own… friend without proof. She yawned sleepily, "I think it's time to crash out."

Lilyanne grinned, "Do you want to sleep on the bed or the chair?"

Lexie sighed and looked at the chair with distaste, "Why don't you split the beds apart and I'll grab the chair, it's not like I'm going to get much sleep either way."

Breena frowned slightly when she easily moved the heavy bed just by pushing on it lightly. Lily tugged her bed into place with a few grunts as the bed refused to easily slide for her.

Breena wasn't sure what to think when Lilyanne stripped out of her clothes without a shred of modesty and crawled under a sheet. She guessed that if Lilyanne could get away with it Lexie probably wasn't going to complain when she herself stripped for bed.


	20. Dreams

Lilyanne yawned as she opened her eyes and looked around the small hotel room. Her eyes fell on Breena's sleeping form. She was only fairly sure that her palms were sweating because of the desert heat. The heat didn't quite explain why her heart was threatening to break free from her chest. It wasn't like it was the first time she had seen a pretty girl sans clothes. Maybe it was the fact that the sheet had slid off Breena's body during the night thus revealing something that would otherwise have remained hidden to her eyes, or maybe it was the way the single beam of light from the window played across her bottom as she slept peacefully.

The frown Lexie had been wearing since she woke from the weird slayer dream, about some twisted demonic Sith, broke into a small smile as she watched her Lily-pad enjoying the sight of Breena's flesh. It didn't hurt that her Lily-pad wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing either. She decided that she needed something to distract herself with as her mind started conjuring images of the two girls together in the shower. She shook her head to try and clear it as she stood up from her chair.

Lilyanne blinked, slightly startled as she heard the chair creak. She quickly glanced over at the cause of the creaking. "How did you sleep?"

"Other than an annoying dream, I guess well enough."

"Slayer dream?"

Lexie replied in a voice laced with sarcasm, "No, it was a dream about you and your naked sisters in a whip cream factory…"

Lilyanne licked her lips, "Yummy, whip cream, I can almost taste it."

Lexie just shook her head, "Yes silly, it was a slayer dream."

Lilyanne sat up in her bed, shrugged and held out her hands in a calm down don't kill the messenger gesture, "Maybe if you talk about it, it will make more sense."

Breena opened one eye carefully before quickly closing it. She had just woken up when the girls started talking. She figured that she would learn more by pretending to be asleep.

Lexie sighed, "I hate it when you make sense. It had the hated one in it, along with dark robes, a red double bladed light saber and lots and lots of cursed sand."

"You ever stop to wonder why you hate Andrew so much?"

"He makes my skin crawl, nothing demonic about it."

"There is also the fact that he whines when he loses."

"As for what I'm going to do about it, I figure I'll take a look around while you and Breena go watch her brother's pod race."

Breena yawned having decided that 'waking' up might be a good idea. She sat up in her bed and looked around the apartment. "Just making sure it wasn't a dream."

Lilyanne smiled, "Hopefully your dreams were pleasant ones."

Breena nodded, "They were very nice, I can go see my brother race?"

Lexie nodded, "Sure, after you get something to eat. I don't trust the venders at events like these."

Lilyanne swung her legs around so she was sitting on the edge of the bed. "How long until breakfast is ready?"

"Maybe ten minutes, I'm just reheating some leftovers Willow made, so if you want to nab a sonic shower, now's the time."

Lily glanced at Breena, "Do you want to grab your shower first?"

Breena blinked almost missing the question as she pulled her eyes away from Lilyanne's crotch. "You can."

Lilyanne smiled and she stood up and ran toward the bathroom.

Breena watched her disappear into the bathroom. After a few minutes of being lost in thought Breena glanced up at Lexie. "Should I get dressed?"

Lexie shrugged, "You would just have to get undressed for your shower. Besides as I'm sure you've noticed, we enjoy the sight."

"I might have noticed how much Lily enjoyed looking at me yesterday."

"Does it bother you?"

"Begging your pardon but as far back as I can remember most people have looked at me like an object. You both look at me like a person. It's a little weird and a little flattering. So I guess if you want to look, please do."

Lexie smiled, "I think if I look too hard, Lily-pad would stab me with a fork."

Lily strolled out of the bathroom, "Who am I stabbing with a fork?"

Lexie smiled, "Your food, now eat before it grows legs and starts moving."

Lilyanne looked slightly panicked for a second, "I thought you said Willow cooked the food, not Dawn. Willow cooked food doesn't get up and move on you." She scowled as she noticed the laughter on Lexie's face. "You shouldn't scare me like that."

Breena looked between the two girls still not quite sure what to make of them. "I think I'll grab my shower and then food."

Lexie nodded, "Make sure you wash behind your ears."

Breena just nodded as she walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

Lily's eyes trailed back over to look at Lexie's face, "You're just in heaven aren't you?"

"Oh please, while I enjoy looking, I'm not going to poach your girl." She walked over, leaned down and licked the top of Lily's ear, then whispered into it, "At least not without you."

Lily scrubbed at her ear while chuckling, "Eww, old girl cooties."

Lexie laughed, "I'm going to go see about acquiring some new tech while you two get ready. Maybe if I can figure out how, I'll even be able to snag a ship."

"How you planning on doing that?"

"I saw a nice shiny ship in my dreams. I figure I can persuade the person into selling it."

Lily frowned at Lexie, "How being that you don't have much money."

"I'll just have to win some by making as many wagers on the pod racing as I can."

"Since when have you gambled?"

Lexie grinned, "Since when is betting on a race you know the outcome of gambling?"

"Isn't that a touch unethical?"

"If you don't tell Willow, I won't."

"Only if you let me fly it before Gaby gets the chance."

"Deal."

Lilyanne watched Lexie leave through the front door. She hoped Lexie's betting went well.

Breena Skywalker weaved through the mob of people, pulling Lilyanne through the crowd with practiced ease. She was just happy that all of her pale skin was covered by the desert clothes Lily had gotten her yesterday. She wasn't sure how her mother or brother were going to take her being sold off to a girl not much older than she was. She was sort of hoping that her family would be happy that she was going to get a chance for a life away from this desert hell. She didn't really want to leave her brother to his own devices though, he had a habit of getting into trouble, like rushing headfirst into a pod race.

Breena frowned as the crowd parted and she caught sight of her brother and his pod racer. She had to admit it looked better after getting a coat of paint. She knew that matter how nice the fresh paint made it look it was still pieced together from spare parts. She held onto the vague hope that the many hours they had spent together on the thing would see him through his race. Still she thought there were worse things to do with her time. It had helped to take her mind off her approaching sale.

Her heart still lurched a bit every time he raced, not because of any worry about their mechanical skills or his piloting skills but because of her distrust of the other pilots. She briefly wished that she had known about the race sooner so she could have asked him why he was racing his own pod. She just hoped that he didn't get himself killed.

Lilyanne was too busy looking around at all of the aliens to spare more than a moment's thought to where her friend was dragging her. Still, it only came as a little bit of a shock when she finally came to a stop in front of a group of people only to be pushed forward and introduced to Breena's mother, one Shmi Skywalker. By the end of the group introductions Lilyanne was getting a bit worried at the weird looks the Jedi knight was directing her way. Of course he hadn't said he was a Jedi but there were several dead giveaways. First his name was Qui-Gon Jinn, second he was wearing robes and third he looked exactly like the Jedi from the movies, so she figured he was a Jedi. Besides, only a force sensitive person would know that she had no force signature on account of being from a different dimension.

She figured it really didn't help that even if she had had some of the force life forms in her the wards against mental intrusion would have protected her from his mind reading powers, at least she hoped so.

Lilyanne watched in growing alarm as the Jedi knight took too much of an interest in Breena after figuring out that she was Anakin's sister. She just hoped that Lexie had some ideas, because there was no way in hell she was going to lose her to the Jedi temple.


	21. cranky slayer

Qui-Gon Jinn was having a hard time concentrating on the race. He wasn't sure what to think about the two new arrivals. He could feel that Anakin's twin's connection to the force was strong like her brothers, just how strong he couldn't say until he got a sample of her blood and had it tested. He wasn't sure how that changed the whole chosen one prophecy but the girl worried him less than her owner. He suppressed a shiver, she had less of a force presence than a droid which typically had no more of a presence than their base metal. His eyes and ears were sending conflicting reports verses his force senses. They were telling him that a rather happy spirited young girl was standing next to Anakin's sister, his other senses were telling him that there was a void in the force where the young girl was standing. He wasn't exactly sure why she was a void in the force but it was worth investigating. Besides if the way she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye when she thought he wasn't looking was any indication she knew that there was something different about her.

Lilyanne tried to focus on the pod racing and not screaming in pain when Breena squeezed her hand particularly tight. She looked back toward the race to see Anakin's pod racer barreling toward the ground at an unhealthy speed. She let out a breath of relief as the engines of his racer flared back to life and the pressure on her hand eased up. She wasn't sure she liked the idea of pod racing but she knew that Gaby would love it.

Breena watched in relief as Anakin crossed the finish line. She was slightly taken aback when a large portion of the crowd started cheering. She smiled, let go of Lily's hand and hugged her mother. "He made it, he really made it."

Shmi smiled at her daughter, "He really did."

"I'm going to go congratulate him. Come on Lily."

Lily rolled her eyes as she was pulled through the crowds by an excited Breena. She felt some relief that Anakin had won the race, not only for Breena's sake but for Lexie's betting and money making schemes. She was always easier to deal with when she was making money. She wondered how things would play out now that the Jedi had enough credits to fix their ship. She figured they would want to take Breena along to the temple if they could swing it. Lily wished that they didn't have to go but knew that they did, if for no other reason than to get pictures of Jedi that could be turned into magical portraits.

Lexie grinned as she collected the last of the credits from her winnings. She was on her way to find her wayward charge when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She just barely managed to turn her head in time to see the floating camera that had just vanished around a corner of a building. She calmed her breathing even as she took off at a run. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to keep up with the camera without giving herself away but she couldn't afford to lose it.

She formed a mental picture of a midnight black rose complete with thorns, she envisioned the rose opening to draw in the power around her. She smiled as the untapped forces of magic surged into her. It was nowhere near the amount she was capable of drawing in but it was enough for what she was planning. She stepped around the corner and wove weaves of spirit and fire around the camera. The weaves were mostly harmless but would make the device easy to track. She sighed as she allowed the power to slip away. She hated letting go of the magic but it just wasn't healthy or feasible to hold onto the magic forever. She grinned as she ducked behind a building and pulled out her phone.

Lily frowned as she looked down at her ringing phone, "Excuse me." She made her way through the crowded room of Shmi's apartment and onto the balcony as she flipped the phone open and brought it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Heya Lily-pad, hang tight with Breena, I'm going Sith hunting."

"No, no way are you going after that thing by yourself, they are really dangerous."

"I can feel it's evil from here, I wouldn't be much of a slayer if I let that thing run around the galaxy causing evil."

Lily sighed, "Just be safe please… And whatever you do don't test out your sword fighting against it please."

Lexie grumbled, "What, you don't think I can win?"

"While I'm fairly sure a light saber can't cut through Bode's heartstone blades, I really don't want you to chance it. Besides, you aren't Gabrielle, you might not be good enough to beat it in a fair fight. Plus, getting cut in half is a poor way to test your healing abilities."

"Your concerns are noted. Wish me luck?"

"Always Lexie." Lily closed the phone.

Qui-Gon Jinn moved carefully away from the archway that led to the balcony, while he didn't normally approve of eavesdropping sometimes one had to resort to unpleasant tactics if one wanted more information. He had had a nagging feeling that he was supposed to listen. Now he almost wished he hadn't used the force to amplify his hearing, he hadn't liked what he had heard. Someone the girl was talking to was talking about hunting a Sith. The Sith were supposed to be extinct. But here was this girl, he couldn't sense with the force, talking calmly with a friend about hunting one of the most dangerous beings in the universe. He was just about to walk out on to the balcony and confront the girl when a thought stuck him that caused him a brief moment of fear. What if the reason that the Sith hadn't shown themselves in hundreds of years wasn't because they were biding their time but because they were being hunted. He wasn't sure he liked where his thoughts were wandering. Any group that could hunt down a Sith could just as easily hunt down a Jedi. He briefly wondered how many missing Jedi over the years had been killed by this rogue group. He knew that he had to get the girl and her mysterious friend to Coruscant so that the Jedi council could decide what to do with them.

Lily didn't like the idea of her babysitter out hunting the Sith apprentice. She knew that Lexie was a trained slayer but Darth Maul was good enough to kill a Jedi, she couldn't help but be a little worried. She sighed, she hoped that Lexie would call for backup if she needed it. She would just have to trust her. She didn't have to like it though.

Breena frowned slightly as she noticed a worried looking Lily walk back into the room. She wasn't sure what was making her new friend sad but decided to walk over and cheer her up. She whispered, "How's it going?"

Lily forced herself to smile before continuing to whisper, "Not too bad I guess."

"You know I'm not going to abandon you don't you?"

"They are going to want to take you to the Jedi temple for training."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to tell them no thanks."

"I don't want to stand in your way."

"Of what, the chance to be selfless and continually put my life in danger for others? I think I could do that, but not if it meant giving up on friends and attachments. I don't have that many." She smiled at Lily, "I'm not Anakin with his dreams of being a Jedi, I'm not willing to give you up just for the title of Jedi."

Lily pulled Breena into a hug, "I'm not ready to give you up either. There is nothing to say that we can't travel with Anakin and see the universe a bit."

"I think I would like that."

Lexie was happy that she had packed her sunglasses. The trek out into the goddess forsaken bright desert to find the dark creature was taking much longer than Lexie would have liked. She was in a particularly grumpy mood by the time the creature's ship came into view. She carefully kept low on the sand hoping he wouldn't notice her. She reached back and pulled her camera out of her pocket then snapped a few pictures. She had barely put her camera away when the creature having seen or heard something ignited his light saber and looked toward her position. She sighed as she stood up. She briefly considered drawing her sword and fighting fairly but after the long trek out here decided the sooner she got the fight over with the better. "Any last words?"

Darth Maul wasn't exactly sure what to make of the creature in front of him. She looked human enough, though she was extremely tall for a human female. He figured she was a few inches taller than he was. It was hard to get a precise read on the girl as he couldn't sense her at all with his force senses. He wondered briefly if she was another Sith that his master hadn't told him about. Her ability to hide from his senses was impressive. She looked calm enough, he couldn't detect even a trace of fear in her eyes. He figured his master would forgive him if he killed the girl. "Die."

She smiled as she formed her mental dark rose and pulled on her power, "I think that's my line." She reached out with her power and wrapped a large coil of air around the creatures head and quickly twisted his head around three hundred and sixty degrees. She ignored the gruesome sound as the creature's neck made horrible noises. She briefly considered leaving the creature for the bugs. "No, I think I want to be sure." She used the flow of air to lift the creature up into the air. She carefully split the flow into a few separate tendrils of air which she used to carefully undress the creature. "No sense in wasting things." With a flick of her hand she used the tendrils of solid air to rip the creatures head off. She used a couple of flows to scoop out the inside of the creature's head. She didn't need it rotting after all. She smiled as she used small flows of air to cause its jaw to move. "What's that?" She leaned over slightly as if to hear better. "I can have your ship? That's nice of you." She carefully used the flows of air to set the head down on the sand. She shook her head, she knew that if she was making jokes worthy of Xander she needed to get out more.

With a small smile and a flick of the flows of air she tossed the body fifty feet into the air before channeling fast amounts of fire at the body. She watched as a mere dusting of ash fell to the sand. She glanced at the now dead Sith's ship. "You my pretty are going to go a long way toward helping with my plans. Now if I can just talk Dawn into collecting the ship and hauling it back home. Probably going to have to split the profit with her when I trade it to the SGC." She sighed as she glanced down at the Sith's head, "I wonder how much Andrew would give me for the head of Darth Maul?"


	22. Blood Test

Disclaimer: None of the official characters are mine.

Lily watched Padmé as the Jedi finished their preparations for leaving. She wondered what it would be like serving a queen. Lily grinned, she was just glad that she didn't have to explain how come there would be three additional people on the queen's ship. The whole mission hadn't gone how she had expected so far. She had sort of expected her and Lexie to be able to slip in and slip out but with the disappearance of Andrew that simple solution had been tossed out the window. She was starting to get a bit annoyed at the odd looks the Jedi was directing her way. It had gotten a lot more intense in the last hour. She was starting to wonder if there was something on her face. She turned to look at Breena, "Do I have something on my face?"

Breena glanced at her owner strangely, "Not that I can tell."

"Good to know. So what's the first thing you're going to do once you get to Coruscant?"

Breena chuckled, "You mean after all the long winded political crap?"

Lily chuckled, "Yeah, after that."

"I'm not sure, I figure we will be too busy to really explore."

"I guess, when do we get old enough to be adults?"

Breena chuckled, "Probably when we get old."

"Blah what's the fun in that."

Qui-Gon Jinn glanced up as he heard the doorbell chime. Anakin's mother quickly walked over and opened the door to allow a very tall girl into the room. Even discounting the additional height her boots granted her she was still probably a good two inches taller than he was. He could tell that she was somehow shielded from his senses. He wasn't surprised when she introduced herself as a friend of Lilyanne's. He was slightly surprised when her gaze searched the room before landing on Padmé. He almost stepped in front of the queen before he caught himself. Still he was more than a bit surprised when she asked if she could buy a ride to Coruscant with them."

Padmé blinked, she figured Lilyanne must have told her where they were going. "I don't know, I would have to ask the Queen."

Lexie smiled slightly as she nodded, "I would be most grateful."

Qui-Gon Jinn fished his communicator out of his pocket and tossed it to Padmé, "We should depart soon, but no sense in having our new friends make the trip into the desert if the queen says no."

Padmé sighed as she took the small communicator and walked into the back room, "I'll be right back."

Lilyanne sighed, the tension between Lexie and the Jedi knight could almost be cut with a knife. She whispered to Breena, "Well if all goes well then we are off for adventure."

Breena smiled, "To adventure."

Lexie was once again happy that she had brought her shades. She hadn't particularly liked deserts before this mission but after this one she was so checking the no desert box on the next couple missions requests. Unless they promised to have naked dancing girls. She grumbled as she almost tripped over a partially buried bone fragment that was barely visible because of the sand. She muttered, "Not even for dancing girls."

Lilyanne tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other as she tromped through the sand. She used to think that she was in acceptable shape but after being worn out from merely tromping through the sand for an hour she vowed to step up the training after she got back home. Though it could just be that she was spending more time watching Padmé's behind than paying attention to where her feet were going exactly. She giggled as she watched Anakin having the same problem.

Breena rolled her eyes as her owner/friend tromped along. She was just happy that the queen was allowing the three of them to tag along. She wanted to offer as much support to Anakin as she could without seeming like an overprotective older sister. Especially being that she was the younger of them by a few seconds.

Anakin's eyes lit up with delight as he first noticed the Queen's ship. "Pretty."

Padmé smiled, "The queen has good taste doesn't she?"

Breena chuckled as Anakin nodded. While the ship was nice she was fairly sure her brother would have agreed with anything his angel said. She was just happy to be putting as much distance between herself and the Hutts as she could.

Lexie grinned as she noticed the nice looking young man trying to pretend that she wasn't freaking him out. "Pleased to meet you Obi-Wan."

"Pleasure to meet you all." Obi-Wan glanced at the three new faces before glancing at Qui-Gon, "Is this going to become a habit?"

Gui-Gon grinned, "The force provides."

"Yes of course."

Qui-Gon glanced down at Breena, "Would you mind doing a blood test?"

Breena glanced at Lilyanne before glancing back at Qui-gon. "I guess."

Lexie wondered what exactly a high tech blood test would show other than a fairly high concentration of the cells that controlled the force. She knew that a simple earth tech blood test didn't show anything out of the ordinary for slayers but who could say with this world's tech. Witches on the other hand, tended to have differences in their genetics that were noticeable even with earth tech if you knew what to look for. She sighed she would just have to be careful about not letting a sample of her or Lilly's blood fall into their hands. She didn't really want them to find out that they had no force life forms in their blood.

Lily quickly glanced around for an escape when Qui-Gon finished taking a blood sample from Breena. The first rule for Scooby missions was don't let people get your blood if you can help it. Typically it applied more toward not letting vampires drink you dry but still she figured it made sense not to let Jedi have your blood for testing either. Lily yawned, "Excuse me."

Padmé smiled at Lily, "If you want to sleep I'll get you a blanket and you can curl up in a corner, I'm sorry we don't have enough beds."

Lily nodded, "A blanket would be nice, it's a little too cold for my taste."

Lexie smiled at Lily, "I think I'll go take advantage of the fact that I do have a bed."

Lily waved, "Night, and sleep well."

Lexie ruffled Lily's hair on her way out.

Breena smiled as Lily hauled her to a corner to chatter.

Anakin smiled as he listened to the pilot explain how the controls worked as the ship came into a landing. He was still grinning from his lesson as he made his way to the hatch where the rest of the group was waiting to disembark.

Padmé was barely half way down the ramp before all hell broke loose as the senator's head exploded like a smashed melon. She dove to the ground as his body crumpled to the ground like a wet puppet with cut strings. Qui-Gon had barely gotten his light saber out and turned on when Chancellor Valorum took a shot to the shoulder. Padmé could only stay on the ground as all hell broke lose around them.

Lilyanne covered her group with a shield spell even as she huddled with her new friends. She noticed that Qui-Gon was calling out orders for people to search the nearby rooftops.

Lexie wanted to scream in frustration as she opened herself to her magic and used her now enhanced sight to search the surrounding buildings. She growled as she didn't even catch the barest glimpse of a figure on any of the close buildings. This wasn't supposed to happen, if something like this could happen that meant that someone else was altering the playbook and as the chancellor lay in a pool of blood with his head blown apart she didn't think it was him. In her mind the only other person it could be was Andrew. She was going to kill him for exposing Lily to such bloodshed. Willow would probably even forgive her.


	23. Bribery

Disclaimer: None of the official characters are mine.

Things sort of blurred for Lily as her group were hustled into a transport. She clutched onto Breena as the adults rushed to put as much cover between themselves and their mysterious attacker as possible. She was concentrating on not losing her breakfast as her stomach was trying to toss up everything she had eaten.

Breena quickly sat down in a corner seat in the transport and pulled her mistress into her embrace. She held her mistress as gently but firmly as she could. While she wasn't used to seeing people's heads blown off every day she had seen a few slaves lose their heads over the years when their owners tired of them. She wished she could do more to comfort Lily other than to just hold her and whisper words of encouragement in her ear.

Lexie wanted nothing more than to comfort Lily but figured Breena was doing a much better job than she could. She turned to watch the Jedi discuss their plans.

The queen sighed, "I'll miss Palpatine's support in the senate as well as his council, but I will not allow this setback to deter us from going to the senate with our grievances."

Lexie sighed, "I know it's not my place to comment but take the Jedi's suggestion, meet with the Jedi council and then bring your complaint to the senate. Your people have already lost a senator they can't afford to lose their queen as well."

Padmé found herself nodding slightly.

The queen nodded, "Fine, to the Jedi Council we shall go."

Yoda frowned as he looked over the collection of people that had been brought to the council chamber. "A great sadness I sense." He glanced at Lexie, "Much anger as well." He glanced back to Padmé who was now dressed as the Queen. "Heard what happened I did, very sorry for your loss I am."

Padmé nodded, "Thank you, I still plan to go before the senate with my plea for help."

Mace Windu nodded, "We can assign a Jedi knight to watch over you if that is what you wish."

Padmé sighed, "At this point I'm willing to take any protection you can provide."

Yoda frowned, "Look into the senator's death we will."

Padmé nodded, "Thank you. If you will excuse me I need to rewrite my speech."

Yoda watched with sad eyes as the queen and her guards left. He looked over the remaining five people with interest. "Something to say about this mess you have?"

Qui-Gon shook his head, "The trouble with Naboo has gone far beyond a simple trade federation dispute."

"So it has, what to do about it we shall see." He turned to look at Lexie, "Something to add perhaps?"

Mace Windu raised an eyebrow, "Such as why you can't be sensed."

Lexie ignored Mace's comment and instead looked at Yoda, "I don't believe the queen was the target for the assassination attempt though she is most likely still in danger."

"Know who the assassin is, you do."

Lexie shook her head, "Nothing is for sure."

Mace Windu glared at Lexie, "If you have any information you must share."

"Really? I must? I don't see how that's my job. I only came to Coruscant to watch over my charge, and she only came here to watch after her friend." She gestured to Lily then Breena. "So please spare me the I must do such and such crap."

Yoda held up a hand as Mace started to open his mouth. "Nothing to be gained by arguing, something more you wish to add Qui-Gon?"

Qui-Gon nodded, "I would like the twins tested."

Yoda glanced at Breena and Anakin, "No harm in testing."

"They better not suffer any harm." Lexie glared at Mace Windu, "Because if they do then there will not be enough of you left to bury. Come on Lily we have some shopping to do."

Lily looked at Breena, "Do you mind?"

Breena shook her head, "I'll be fine."

Lexie glared at the Jedi knight that had stepped partially in front of the exit. "Move."

He quickly backed up a step as Lexie and Lily walked out the door.

Mace Windu frowned, "That girl knows something."

Yoda nodded, "Tell us she will or she won't, make her tell us we cannot, nor try will we."

Mace Windu gestured to Obi-Wan, "Please take the children to the testing room."

Obi-Won nodded, "Let's go."

Mace waited until the children had left then glanced at Qui-Gon, "What can you tell us about the young ladies?"

"Other than the fact that I can't sense them at all?"

"Yes other than that."

"The younger girl apparently bought then freed Miss Breena Skywalker. To what purpose I don't know. While on the planet I overheard Lilyanne talking with Lexie about her plans for hunting a Sith."

Yoda frowned, "A Sith says you?"

"While I admit that I felt a dark presence vanish while I was on the planet I do not know if the two things are connected."

Mace shook his head, "I do not believe there could be a Sith running around without our knowing it."

Yoda shook his head sadly, "Hard to see the dark side is."

Mace Windu frowned, "They should be watched."

"Qui-Gon Jinn a new assignment I have for you."

Andrew Wells was on a scale of one to ten an eleven on the freaked meter. It wasn't the fact that he had just killed someone and put a bullet into another man that freaked him out, after all he had spent the last several years practicing for that very moment. He wasn't going to shed a tear for his childhood idol's death. He knew that if left alive the dark lord of the Sith would be responsible for killing billions of people in this reality. No what worried him was that even though it was a council sanctioned mission to deal with the Senator he could almost hear the bells of death tolling for him. He hadn't expected Lexie or Lily to be on that ship. It wasn't like he could not take the shot though. Palpatine almost never left the security of his office or the senate chambers. It was a once in a lifetime shot.

He had prepared for almost all the possible outcomes. He had even brought demon bound bullets with him to make sure of his accuracy and to insure that the Jedi or the Senator wouldn't have the force warning him about his approaching death. He slammed down a large shot of the local approximation of whiskey as he huddled in his apartment. He knew that Lexie was going to kill him. He just wasn't ready to be ripped apart by an angry slayer. He knew that he might have been able to talk a different slayer out of killing him but Lexie had hated him, unjustly of course, for over a decade and he knew that this would be the straw that finally snapped her.

He just wished that his phone hadn't died a few weeks ago, because calling for a portal out of this place was suddenly starting to sound really good. He briefly wished that he could summon a demon for a bodyguard. He quickly tabled that idea as he knew that summoning any demons into this reality was impossible not to mention the fact that he wasn't sure he could summon anything she couldn't just kill. The only reason the demon bound to his bullets was here was because it had been bound in his old world and carried through the portal into this new one. He slammed another shot of rotgut as he waited for his death.

Lily sighed, while she didn't mind shopping she was a little concerned with Lexie's single minded shopping spree. She had been dragged from the Jedi temple to a seemingly endless series of stores selling everything from computers to parts for spacecraft. "You know you're acting like a girl right?"

Lexie stopped and blinked a few times before glancing down at Lily, "What?"

"You're in shopping mode. You haven't been a happy camper since…"

"The senator got his head splattered?"

"Yeah." Lily frowned in distaste. "You shopping till I drop isn't going to spin back time. It's not going to get the pictures out of our heads."

Lexie sighed, "Can't I keep my delusions for a little while longer?"

"I guess."

"Thank you. Have you given any thought to getting your family any holiday presents?"

"The holidays are months away."

Lexie reached out a hand and ruffled Lily's hair. "Yeah but this might be one of the last places we visit on this mission that has real stores. Plus being that we have to have Dawn pick Andrew's body up, we might as well take advantage of the portal and toss any extra things we have through."

"We have to find Andrew first, though there is always the chance that he didn't do it."

Lexie raised her eyebrow and looked down at Lily, "Do you really believe that it wasn't him?"

"It's not like he knew we were going to be there…"

Lexie tapped her foot, "Fine, when we find him we can just have a nice civil conversation."

Lily scrunched up her face as she looked at Lexie, "No breaking of limbs or killing him?"

Lexie smiled, "Fine no killing him," She looked around, "how about some ice cream?"

"You don't honestly think you can bribe me with ice cream to ignore you breaking his limbs do you?"

"Double chocolate on a waffle cone?"

"Not my fault if he fall down the stairs… a few times."

Lexie smiled and hugged Lily, "Knew there was a reason I liked you and Gabrielle."


	24. Giggling girls and blankets

Lily idly fiddled with her long strawberry colored hair as she mentally ran back over the events of the last few hours as she waited for Breena to get out of the Jedi's testing room. She and Lexie had finished their shopping a little bit ago, they had just been about to call for pickup when they decided to try one last time to find Andrew. Lily remembered the look of shock on Lexie's face when the crystal had actually stopped spinning after a half a turn and stayed pointed in one direction. The couple of other times they had tried to use the charmed crystal to find Andrew it had merely spun around in erratic circles. They had almost been willing to give up on it. Using the crystal they had tracked him to a run down looking hotel. They had easily slipped past the droid security guard using a disillusionment charm. It had only taken a little bit of effort to find the correct floor and door in the cheap hotel. She still felt a little guilty that she had busted the crappy lock on the hotel room door, her Alohomora spell had fried the electronics and fused the door shut. Lexie had had to break the door down in order to get into the room. Lily smiled at the memory of finding Andrew passed out on the bed with a number of empty bottles of alcohol scattered around. It had been slightly humorous to watch Dawn and Lexie toss him through the portal.

Lily was pulled from her concentration when the door to the testing center slid open and a smiling Breena skipped out almost dragging a frowning Anakin.

Breena smiled at Lily, "We passed the stupid tests."

Anakin frowned, "But they aren't going to let us become Jedi."

Breena's smile brightened even more, "Isn't it great?"

"What's so great about not being able to be Jedi?"

Breena skipped over to Lily's bench and flopped herself down next to Lily, "Well for one, I get to keep Lily."

Lily grinned as she pulled Breena into a hug, "I sort of like that part of it."

Anakin glanced around, "Hey, where is Lexie?"

"She wouldn't say, just that she had to talk to the queen."

"I wonder if I can go back and see my mother now that I'm not going to be a Jedi."

Breena shifted to use Lily as a pillow for her back as she looked at Anakin, "You worry too much Anakin, do what Yoda says and let go of your fear, mom will be just fine."

Lily smiled, "Exactly, in a few years you can go back and free her if she still needs it. I wouldn't be surprised if she does just fine for herself over the next few years. She might even get herself a boyfriend."

Breena's reply was lost as Qui-Gon entered the room followed by Obi-Wan.

Anakin looked at Qui-Gon nervously, "What happens to us now?"

"The council has refused to allow me to train you but nothing says you can't pay very close attention. We have been sent to aid the queen on her trip back to Naboo."

Lily slipped her arms around Breena. "So what do you think?"

"Someone will have to keep my brother out of trouble."

Anakin frowned, "Hey, I'm not the one that started that fight with the…" He sputtered to a stop when he noticed her glare, "So can we go?"

Qui-Gon nodded, "Yes."

Anakin grinned brightly.

Lily shrugged, "I'll have to ask Lexie."

Andrew woke with a splitting headache. He cracked one eye open trying to figure out why his head felt so funny, or why his feet and wrists hurt. As soon as he had opened his eye he wished he had just kept it tightly shut. He frantically looked around the dimly lit upside down bathroom he found himself in. In his addled state it took him a few seconds to realize that it wasn't the room that was upside down. He opened both eyes as he became aware of the fact that his feet were each chained by a separate manacle to the ceiling. He frantically tried to reach up to his feet only to discover that his arms were chained at the wrists to large cinder blocks resting on the bottom of the bathtub. "Help! Help! Oh please god help!" He winced at the volume from his own voice.

"I don't think God can save you now."

Andrew frantically twisted around until he caught a brief glimpse of a teenaged girl. Her dark brown hair was swept back into a tail.

Andrew face sagged in relief, he had a vague memory of the girl from looking over slayer files, he just wasn't exactly sure where he had seen her or her name. "Get me down from here."

"I'm sorry, but why would I want to do that?" She smiled in what she hoped was a sexy manor, "It took me so long to chain you up in the first place." She traced a finger slowly along one of the red lines on her robes, "Besides, I haven't had my fun yet."

He was having trouble breathing as he noticed that the flimsy bathrobe she was wearing was splattered with something that looked way too much like human blood for his comfort. "We, we can talk about this right?"

Her grin turned into a full blown smile as she showed off her long fangs, "I'm afraid not. You see I don't much feel like talking." She reached out and touched a struggling Andrew on the knee. She smiled as she trailed her finger down his leg. She smiled with delight as she hooked her finger on his boxers, "You know what I'm going to do to you?"

"Hurt me?"

"Give the guy a cookie, you don't remember me do you?"

Andrew started to sob as he fought his hangover and tried desperately to remember the girl's name.

She smiled, "It's okay, really it's better this way." She let the front of her robe slip open a touch to reveal her silky bare skin. "No more rules, no more paperwork, no more watcher breathing down my neck." As she curled her fingers around his boxers her robe slid enough that her left breast was visible in the dim light. "You know what I did to him?" With a jerk she ripped one side of his boxers open, "I like to nibble you see."

"Help, please someone save me!"

She smiled as he frantically shouted for help. "No one can hear you, just a little spell I picked up in training. It was designed to mask a break in, but I've found other uses for it."

She smiled as she traced her finger down his other knee, "Sometimes I start with the fingers, some times I start with other things."

His voice barely more than a whisper, "Other things?"

"Oh yes," She grinned as she let her robe slip even more.

Andrew almost passed out when he saw the look she was giving his crotch.

She reached out and ripped the rest of his boxers off with one solid painful pull. She sighed in disgust as she glanced down at Andrew's erect manhood. "That crap excites you? Lexie was right, you really are a freak." She pulled her robe closed with one hand even as she bent down and turned the cold water on full blast before pulling the switch to make the shower work."

Andrew had only a brief second of shock before the cold water blasted directly into his crotch.

The girl smiled, "By the way the name is Jamie."

Giles glanced up as he heard a knock on the office door. "Come in."

Jamie smiled as she slipped inside the office.

Giles raised an eyebrow as the young slayer slipped inside the office. "How can I help you Jamie?"

Jamie smiled as she reached up and took the caps off her teeth. "I'll have to thank the magical department for these. I think I scared the hell out of Andrew."

Giles by sheer force of will kept his gaze focused on the fake fangs and her face rather than the small sliver of skin that was being displayed as her robe didn't quite close all of the way. "So Lexie succeeded in getting Andrew back. I suppose scaring him half to death was Lexie's idea?"

"Andrew shot the senator in front of Lily and Lexie, his brains may even have ended up on Lily."

Giles winced, "That can't be a good thing."

"Not really no, Lexie was more than a little pissed about it, her original idea was to kick him in the nuts repeatedly until he puked his guts out but Lilyanne talked her out of it. Said that it wasn't his fault that the timing was bad and that a mission was a mission."

"If a mission is a mission, do I even want to know what the screaming a few minutes ago was about?"

"I never said Lexie forgave him, as for the screaming, it's probably better that you don't." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring of keys. "You might want to send someone to let him down in a little bit, maybe one of the older slayers." She grinned as she tossed the manacle keys on the desk.

"Do I even want to know why you have that many chains?"

"Hey don't look at me, they are Amber's."

"Our thirteen year old Amber Morten?"

"Yeah, she likes it when you…" Jamie smiled as she licked her lips. "Well never mind that."

Jamie smiled as she noticed a slight reddening of Giles' face.

Giles shook his head, "I'm in a mad house."

Jamie smiled as she sauntered out the door with her robe half open knowing that the light from the hallway would give Giles a nice outline of her body. "You know you love us."

Giles shook his head, "You're almost as much trouble as Buffy." He wisely didn't voice the rest of that statement, "just a different kind." He briefly wondered about checking on Andrew himself but decided to send one of the slayers that had snuck out the night before and were awaiting punishment.

Lexie glanced around her room on the Queen's ship, more accurately it was the non staff non Jedi's room. She was just glad that Jar Jar hadn't gotten tossed into the room as well. Anakin was curled up in the corner watching a holovideo trying to ignore his sister and Lily's giggling. The only good thing as far as Lexie was concerned was that Anakin thought the giggling was because of the holovideo and not whatever was happening under the blanket they had wrapped around themselves.

Lexie had to force herself to not snarl at Lily and Breena's cuddling. She was fairly sure it had gone slightly past mere cuddling but wasn't completely sure because of the large blanket. It wasn't that she objected to cuddling, far from it normally, it was just that she was getting horny as hell watching the two girls sneak kisses to each other when Anakin wasn't looking. She found herself wishing that Rogue or Neville were around at least that way she could toss the children out and get some sex. Hell the horny part of her said toss Anakin out and keep the girls. She half wished she could just club one of the Queen's handmaidens over the head drag her back to her room and screw her silly. Of course she would never club a girl over the head but it was a happy thought as she tried to focus on not causing a social scandal on the mission.

Obi-Wan was having trouble meditating, the intense feelings rolling off Breena were disconcerting to say the least. He could at times pick out traces of joy, attraction and curiosity. Mostly the emotions radiating from her tonight were a confusing mess. He was beginning to wonder if the real reason that the Jedi council didn't allow Jedi to marry wasn't because of fear of attachment but because they didn't want to suffer the bleed off of emotions caused by living with non Jedi. The emotional bleed over from hundreds of non Jedi would have been tough for the younglings to deal with. Even he was having problems with the intensity of the emotions coming from the next room. He was glad he could only sense one side of the fun in the next room, as one side was bad enough.

Qui-Gon smiled, "Calm yourself my Padawan, focus on the living force and ignore the wilder emotions."

Obi-Wan nodded, "I will try master. What do you think of the Queen's deal with Lexie?"

"As Master Yoda would say, 'dangerous to guess I find this, hope for the best we must.'"

Obi-Wan shook his head in amusement, "Hopefully nothing bad comes of this."

"I believe it was the will of the force that we found the people we did. Now we just have to trust that the force will show us the path."

Obi-Wan nodded then went back to meditating.


	25. My babysitter did what?

Lily shivered and rubbed at the goose bumps on her arms as she and Breena crept to the edge of the forest and its concealing mist. The excitement of sneaking off the ship had long since vanished by the time the girls had reached the edge of the forest. She couldn't help but feel nervous as she looked out over the storm covered battlefield. They knew that if they got caught they were either dead or in so much trouble they would almost wish they were when Lexie got done with them. They were supposed to have stayed on the ship but they had wanted to see what the armies looked like. They had convinced themselves that as long as they stayed near the forest they would be safe enough, after all Anakin had been sent with the Queen and Jedi so how dangerous could things really be. Lily was having second thoughts as she took in the number of Gungan warriors on the field compared to the vast army of battle droids. She knew it was one thing to see it in a movie and another to see it with your own eyes but she admitted she hadn't been ready for the reality.

Breena twitched as she glanced up from the battle and noticed the storm wracked sky. She trembled slightly as she pointed a shaking hand toward the sky. Her voice was a mere whisper, "Is that normal?"

Lily frowned as she realized that the already dark storm clouds were growing even darker almost black as they watched. "No I can't say this is normal, maybe…" The rest of her words were cut off as a bolt of lightening shot from the heavens and blasted into the droid army with a thunderous boom.

Breena shivered, she was glad that she was too far away from the battle to see the individual droids blasted apart.

Lily was still blinking away the afterimage as another bolt tore through the ranks of droids. By the third blast Lily was sure that Lexie's magic was responsible, by the tenth blast in as many seconds Lily wanted to crawl out of her skin as her mind worked out just how much magic it would take to toss lightening bolts continuously. Her heart was pounding faster than the lightening flashes as her carefully constructed world came crashing down. She had always assumed that her sweet lovable babysitter was just an average slayer gifted with some magical ability that got stuck as their babysitter. The fact that she could call that many lightening bolts proved that she was in no way, shape or form average. Lily found herself holding a shaking Breena as she wondered just how powerful Lexie really was.

Breena leaned into Lily's embrace as she tried to figure out why the world had stopped making sense.

Lexie wore an annoyed expression as she dropped the weave of magic that controlled and called the lightening strikes. While she knew she could have continued to toss lightening around for a long time, she was glad to stop as the constant booming sound was starting to get rather painful even with the makeshift earplugs stuffed in her ears. She reached up and pulled the cotton like material from her ears as she raked her eyes across the battlefield. She wanted to kick herself, she had hoped that the lightening would cause more disorder, forgetting for a moment that the army was composed of droids and not flesh and blood creatures that knew fear. While the strikes had caused a lot of damage to the larger vehicles she had been aiming at they had completely failed at breaking the army's forward movement. As she was standing just inside the shield with an army of droids advancing toward her she figured it was time to try the next trick on her list.

Breena took her hands away from her ears as the lightening stopped. She watched in dismay as the droids regrouped and made a push for the shield.

Lily was more than a little relieved not to be anywhere close to the battle when huge funnel clouds started forming on the battlefield. Lily shouted to be heard over the ringing in her ears, "We need to get out of here."

Breena nodded vigorously as they made their way back toward the ship.

Lexie relaxed as she felt the sonic shower massage away the dirt from the battle. She hadn't exactly been happy with how many droids had broken through near the end but there had been only so much she could do once the Gungan's had engaged the droids without endangering them. She tried to push all of that behind her as she got ready for the party the Queen was throwing. Lexie was tired enough of dealing with politics that she just wanted to take possession of the droids laying around the battle field and go home as per her and the Queen's agreement. She wasn't however naïve enough to believe it would be that easy. She figured with a little luck she could trade her share of the droid army for the mining and manufacturing equipment she needed to start mining asteroids back in Buffy's world. She smiled at the thought of the ships she could build with the untapped supplies of Buffy's world.

Breena smiled as she watched Anakin being treated like a hero. When she had first heard that her brother was a hero she could hardly believe it. Apparently he had blown up the droid's control ship by flying a ship into it's hanger and firing on the ship's reactors from inside. She smiled at the memory of him privately admitting that it was an accident. She was pulled from her musing by Lily's finger poking her in the arm.

"You sad that you're not a hero?"

"I'm sure I'll get many chances to be a hero, besides being a hero is dangerous work."

Lily chuckled as she raised her glass of cider and looked at Lexie and Anakin, "To heroes."

The crowd around the banquet table echoed her cheer.


	26. Ship shopping

Dawn had only been in the Starwars dimension, as they were calling it, for a few days but she liked it so far. It was as far as she was concerned a pleasant change from the massive amount of translation work piled up on her desk back at home. Of course the paperwork wouldn't have been so backed up if Giles had just sent the correct translation book in the first place.

She had spent a lot of time the last few days either swimming in one of the many lakes or watching Lexie, Anakin or Breena experiment on one of the droids they had salvaged from the battle fields.

She was on her way to the lab for another day of much the same when she noticed Lily and Breena cheerfully rushing away from the lab and toward the house everyone shared. The house, lab and surrounding property were on loan from the queen. From what she had heard it had belonged to some minor dignitary with an obsession for tinkering with strange technology. Luckily for them though not for him he had died during the occupation.

She walked in and looked around briefly before spotting Lexie working alone for the first time in days. "I just saw the rug rats run off giggling like demented little goblins, do I want to know?" She glanced around again. "And where is Anakin?"

Lexie grinned, "I sent Anakin into town to get some more parts. As for the girls, I'm assuming they are taking advantage of the fact that they have their own private room and no one to walk in on them."

"I'm going to stick my head in the sand and just assume that they are going to just play video games, that way I don't have to wash my mind out with bleach."

"Probably better that way."

"So not that this hasn't been a nice vacation but have you given any thought to what we are going to do with Breena?"

Lexie laughed softly, "Let Lily keep her? I figure we could hide her in Lily's room under Lily's collection of stuffed animals. It will take the grownups ages to figure it out. We can even have Dobby sneak her food and everything."

"You know we're both grownups right?"

"Damn, an otherwise flawless plan foiled."

Dawn rolled her eyes, "You ever plan on growing up?"

"I'm an immortal witch, why should I?" Lexie shook her hair out of her face, "Besides, if I admitted that I was a grownup, the fact that a part of me would love to quit work and go 'play' with the girls would be creepier than even I could deal with today."

"You seriously need to get laid girl if you're thinking about Lily and Breena like that. Though they are rather cute."

Lexie grinned, "Especially when they are sleeping all curled up together."

Dawn shook her head, "Alright first thing when we get back I'm having Willow shag the hell out of you. Maybe that will hold you over until Rogue visits again."

Lexie drifted for a few seconds with a smile on her face before she shook her head to clear it. "Seriously letting Lily keep Breena works for me. She was raised a slave and doesn't seem to have any issues with Lily being her guardian slash owner."

"Should it bother me that I'm actually considering your crazy plan?"

"Maybe a little?"

"What happens when we send Lily off to Hogwarts?"

"What makes you think there will be a school left to send her too? Or even if there is that she will want to go. I know she was sad that she couldn't go with the others but seriously other than the social aspect the school isn't all that great."

Dawn shrugged, "I don't know but we have a while to figure it out. But anyways, what are you going to do about Anakin?"

Lexie frowned, "I don't know… I was sort of hoping to hear from Qui-Gon or Obi-Won before I left this world. If we do then we send Anakin if we can otherwise we take him with us. He can share portrait classes with Breena."

Dawn nodded, "I guess that will have to do. We can give it a few more days."

"Speaking of leaving, how big of a ship can I bring back?"

Dawn groaned, "I don't know, probably nothing larger than a house, why?"

"Well I want another ship."

"You already have that Sith ship."

"Yeah but I want to bring a mining and refinery ship back with us. Maybe some manufacturing droids as well."

Dawn blinked as she looked up at Lexie, "You want to start your own ship yard don't you?"

"I just want to be prepared if some crazy alien comes to our part of the world. Besides think of all of the gemstones we could have them mine. You could have your own ship as well once we get things up and running."

"Well I guess I can see how it would be great to have nearly unlimited resources. How do you expect to pay for the mining ship?"

"Well we do have most of a droid army that we can sell."

Dawn shook her head, "You are a very, very bad girl."

"Does that mean I get a spanking?"

Dawn grinned as she reached over and patted her on the behind, "You'll have to ask Willow for the rest."

"You are evil."

"Details."

Lexie shrugged, "Anyways if you're willing I've arranged transport for us to the shipyards to see about a mining and refining ship. If we get really lucky we might even find some droids for ship building."

Dawn sighed, "Not exactly what I had in mind to do with my day but what the heck."

Lexie grinned, "So you want to go embarrass the girls?"

Dawn chuckled, "Why would we do that?"

"Two reasons, one because it's fun and two because while I got passage from the spaceport to the shipyard we need a pilot to get from here to the spaceport and Breena knows how to pilot a ground craft."

Dawn smiled, "I guess it wouldn't be so bad to take along a mechanic."

Lexie chuckled as she watched the children happily looking at the various ships and droids in the salvage yard. She whispered, "We really should have knocked first."

"I just want to know where Lily learned that thing with her tongue…"

Lexie shook her head, "Don't know but from the way Breena was wiggling… I might have to test it out on Willow."

Dawn swatted Lexie's arm, "You're horrible, fantasizing about slobbering on my wife like that."

Lexie grinned, "You can hold the video camera."

"Well in that case let's find a ship or a couple and get this show on the road so we can get home."

Dawn slumped into her chair, she felt like an overcooked soggy noodle. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so exhausted. She knew she should have called it quits when she got a nose bleed from opening a portal large enough for Breena and Lily to fly the old mining ship through. She found herself wishing she had listened to her body and closed the portal rather than holding the portal open long enough for Anakin to fly the droid filled refinery ship through.

As she lay in her chair looking up at the sky and feeling drained and a little ill she was seriously wondering if transporting the ships had been worth it. To her untrained eyes the mining and refinery ships hadn't looked like much. While they blew anything her world had out the window they seemed old and a little worn in this one. Though after finding out that it had already been in service for twenty years she had to admit despite the dirty hull it looked sturdy enough to operate for a few more decades without serious maintenance, which was just what they needed in a ship.

Lexie had been amazed at the shear number of ship plans one could acquire if you had part of a droid army to trade. They had packed the computers full of various plans and schematics so that they could slowly work toward building a fleet of ships back in Dawn's world. Of course they were all years out of date but it would be a start. She grinned as she looked out over the field at one of the ships left from the invasion.

Dawn felt like groaning as she noticed the direction of Lexie's gaze. "I'm not transporting the droid army's ships without help. I plan on vegging out in this chair for a while, maybe get some food and sleep then maybe just maybe I'll feel like opening a portal to get Willow and the rest of the gang to help with the energy cost, so don't even ask yet."

Lexie shrugged, "I wasn't going to. Besides once Breena, Anakin and Lily get back we have a lot of work to do just trying to rig a master control on the land craft so we can send them through in an orderly fashion."

Dawn found herself hoping that all of the work would pay off. If everything thing went according to plan then they would have the mining operations up and running before too long. She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do with forty percent of nearly unlimited resources though, especially when you couldn't dump more than a tiny fraction into the economy without destroying it. Still she figured it would help fund the slayers forever, and that made the pain and exhaustion almost worth it.


	27. You did what with the dvds?

Willow chuckled as a naked Dawn limped her way into the kitchen. "You know you could have taken more than a few days off before opening the rest of the portals for the droids and crap."

"I guess but I just wanted to get back." Dawn pushed her fingers through her hair futilely trying to make it look a touch more presentable.

Willow reached into the cupboard and pulled out a glass which she filled with apple juice from the fridge before sliding it along the counter to Dawn. "You know you can't keep pushing yourself this hard, bad things are going to happen if you do."

Dawn carefully caught the glass. "I just wanted to be done with that world, besides…" She took a small sip, "After Qui-Gon and Obi-Won's reactions to the Star Wars DVDs I didn't really want to stick around to witness Mace Windu's or Yoda's reactions."

"I still can't believe that Qui-Gon retired in order to teach Anakin."

"He still believes that he can alter the path of destiny."

"Maybe he can, maybe he can't. It's out of our hands now, we made the choice to leave Anakin with the Jedi."

Dawn sighed, "I know doesn't mean I have to like it."

Faith smirked as she walked in and checked out Dawn's behind, "Delicious, hey Red can you pass the chow."

Willow chuckled as she passed over a plate of scrambled eggs and pulled Dawn into a hug, "No candy for you, at least not before breakfast."

Dawn smiled, twisted her head and planted a kiss on Willow's lips. Faith stifled a chuckle as she grabbed a fork from the drawer and dug into her eggs.

A clothes free Lily frowned as she walked into the kitchen. "Eww old people kissing in the kitchen." She put a hand over her eyes, "Have you no shame?"

Dawn grinned, "Nope."

Willow released Dawn with a sigh as she slid out of her arms and over to the pan to get some eggs. "So what brings you down here without your new friend?"

Lily took her hand from in front of her eyes, "Breena's still in the shower."

"Enjoying the water isn't she?"

"Sonic showers are a bit different."

"So what do you two have planned?"

"Only 'chore' I have today is watering Neville's plants. That shouldn't take too long. We might watch some of Lexie's old home movies, after that I'm not sure. Do you have any ideas?"

Willow shook her head, "Not really, but you might want to go over the slayer package a bit more with her."

"Isn't her watcher supposed to go over that with her…"

Dawn smiled, "Well technically yes, but as we are short on watchers I thought you might like to."

Lilyanne smiled as brightly as she could, "I would love to."

Faith smirked, "Go on then, get your girl something to eat. Slayers like their food."

Lily took the two plates Willow loaded with food and hurried out of the room.

Faith glanced at Willow, "You're scheming."

"Would I do that?"

Dawn and Faith looked at each other for a second before they both said "Yes!" at the same time.

Willow smiled at both Dawn and Faith, "Fine, maybe a little. I figured Lily would like the practice being all watchery. Besides Breena might as well hear the whole slayer background from someone she likes. It makes it slightly less horrible."

Faith nodded, "Speaking of like, did you see the bounce in Lily's step."

Dawn chuckled, "I think they're cute."

Faith shook her head, "You know there is something wrong with the world when the kids are getting more springs bouncing time than I am." She licked her lips, "Maybe I need a cute young girl to play with."

Dawn smirked, "I think Lexie would agree with you, being that both Rogue and Neville are out of her reach at present."

Willow smiled at Faith, "We could always try combining a finding love spell with the spell that searches out the new multidimensional slayers. I'm sure one of those girls would be to your liking…" She frowned at the look on Faith's face. "I was sort of joking, but you would actually go for it wouldn't you?"

Faith sputtered, "I like Logan just fine…"

Dawn smirked, "But?"

Faith sighed, she had changed a lot in the last ten years, mostly for the better, but admitting that she was more than slightly attracted to girls still wasn't exactly easy for her. "But a girl has needs and some of the girls you've already found are wicked cute." She smiled at Dawn, "Not that you two aren't cute but Red's married a few times over and Buffy would kill me repeatedly if I did anything with you. On the other hand I have a smoking hot body why waste it."

Willow chuckled, "I'll start working on the spell after I finish breakfast."

Faith sighed, "I'm never hearing the end of this am I?"

Dawn grinned, "See she knows us so well."

Breena sighed as she pulled herself out of the nice warm shower. She wasn't sure what to think of a shower with real water instead of the sonic showers used by everyone back home. She knew she was going to have to get used to a lot of different things. She reached out and grabbed her towel and started drying herself off. Not having to see that fat slug of an owner was one of the many things she wasn't going to miss from living on that desert planet. She figured the only thing she would miss was her mother and getting to work in the shop with Anakin when she could sneak the time in. Dawn had promised that she could visit Anakin now and then and write to him every day if she wanted. She wasn't sure she wanted to have to write to her twin every day but maybe once a week would be good. Besides they could swap stories, his Jedi training stories and her slayer training stories. She just hoped he wasn't having more fun. She smiled as she thought of Lily, "Somehow I think I got the better deal."

Author's note: I'm looking for crossover ideas on where to send Faith for a possible girl toy. Give me a review and toss me a suggestion and I'll consider it.


	28. Beach in the middle of nowhere

Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the various Buffy characters nor any of the other various characters I've borrowed from various places. I do not own the Charmed One's world either.

Keira Halliwell sighed, she hated lying to her mother about where she was but somehow she didn't think that her mother would approve of her using her powers for selfish reasons. Rest and relaxation were apparently on the list of things you couldn't use magic for according to the elders. So she had in typical Keira fashion decided that the elders needed to go fuck themselves and used her magic to teleport to a private beach on a deserted tropical island for some much needed rest and relaxation. It wouldn't even have been needed if her mother hadn't totally freaked over her new powers. Just because super strength and better agility weren't powers either of her parents had didn't mean they were wig-worthy. But no, they had had to call the damned Elders.

She grumpily rolled over unto her back as she remembered just how much the stupid Elders had freaked over the new powers. Apparently, she wasn't meant to have them. They were actually sending someone over in the morning to try to remove them so that the stasis quo would be maintained. She was royally pissed that they hadn't even had the nerve to tell her to her face that they were going to steal her new powers, all because they were worried about where the powers had come from or how evil would take 'good' getting a power boost. She was just happy that her brother Chris had given her some warning, he had made a brief stop back at the manor to warn her before rushing back to White Lighter land to argue her case. They both knew it wouldn't help but that was what older brothers did. They looked out for their slightly annoying younger sisters.

"I wish I knew how to keep my powers and get the Elders off my back, hell I might as well wish for true love while I'm at it." She shook her head, for the daughter of a cupid her love life was rather sad. She figured it was either due to a curse her father had placed on her or her two overprotective older cousins scaring off any of the boys that bothered coming around. It could also be that her father had told the other cupid's that he would kill them if they brought love into his fourteen-year-old daughter's life but she hoped it was nothing that serious.

Luckily or unluckily, she was a bit too distracted to feel the slight drain on her magic reserves as she tossed her wish into the cosmos. She had barely had time to yawn before she drifted off to sleep.

Faith looked around as she stepped out of the bright green portal. She found herself looking around a small rather pleasant though mostly deserted beach. She had to say mostly deserted because there was a very lovely naked young lady sprawled out on an old faded towel with a pile of clothes lying nearby. She smiled as she walked closer, "Dark brown hair, with a cute rump, going to have to say Dawn got that part right. Just I should make myself comfortable until she wakes.

Keira blinked as she came to and realized that the sun was in the process of setting and that she would have to start thinking about heading back to the manor soon. She sat up and stretched as her eyes did a sweep of the beach. She couldn't believe that she had allowed herself to fall asleep like that. Granted she had been really tired and the beach had proven safe the numerous other times she had visited but as there were still quite a number of demons around that would love to kill a Halliwell it was a bad habit to fall asleep alone anywhere outside of the manor. Her gaze lurched as it settled on a haphazard pile of unfamiliar clothes lying on the sand halfway toward the water's edge. Her breath caught as noticed a very pretty naked girl that looked to be in her early twenties building a sand castle. Her wet long dark hair was at odds with the pale white skin of her back. "Hello?"

Faith smiled as she glanced over her shoulder at the girl. "Name's Faith."

"Uh Keira, not to be rude but what are you doing all alone on a deserted island in the middle of the pacific?"

Faith smiled, "I'm building a sand castle." She grinned at the slight frown on the other girls face. "Would you believe me if I said I was a mystical sex toy that was only here for twenty four hours in order to make all of your dreams come true?"

"You are?" Keira blinked, "Hey now you're just messing with me, I'm fairly sure I don't like girls like that."

"Yes, but you are a very lovely girl." Her grin split into a large smile, "And as you said fairly sure I'll take what I can get."

Keira shook her head trying to get the last of the sleep out of it, "Maybe this is just a dream."

"If this was a dream you would be over here or I would be over there, alas such is not the case." Faith wasn't sure what was wrong with her but she couldn't help licking her lips nor could she take her eyes off the girl's smooth looking skin.

"Are you a demon?"

"Not that I know of, I'm a slayer actually. One of the chosen few, a girl picked by fate to battle the monsters, given supernatural strength and agility and a crappy life span. I don't suppose you've had weird dreams or a greater than normal amount of strength lately."

"How did you know that?"

Faith smiled, "let me tell you a story."

Keira wouldn't normally believe a random stranger but her empathy was telling her to trust the girl, at least somewhat. She wasn't exactly sure she should trust her empathy as the feelings coming from the other girl were giving her quite a rush. She found herself motioning the other girl over against her better judgment so as to better hear the story.

Faith smiled as she glided up the beach toward the other girl, 'I'm so going to hell but damn she's hot.'


	29. A new world

Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the various Buffy characters nor any of the other various characters I've borrowed from various places. Jumped a few years since the last chapter.

Faith smiled as she watched Keira Halliwell helping the returning girls with their bags. It had been five years since they had met but the girl was still a lot of fun to hang out with. Not to mention the killer sex her impromptu visits tended to spawn. It had been bitter sweet on learning that the elders finally under threat of strike from her magical powerhouse family decided it wasn't worth trying to steal her slayer powers any more. On the one hand it meant that Keira could go back to living with her family for the most part, on the other hand it meant her leaving the house. Still, a ritual and some of Dawn's blood to enchant Keira's Cupid ring and all her transportation problems were solved, at least for the most part. Though with college starting she would probably see Keira less than usual for a while.

Keira smiled as she glanced over at Faith before returning to helping the girls with their stuff.

Gabrielle chuckled as she looked around the portal room. "It's good to be home."

Keira chuckled, "So did you enjoy your time in the pokegirl world?"

Gabrielle grinned, "Probably the last time I'm going there for a while but yeah it's always interesting."

Xander glanced around, "We should probably get over to the infirmary and see about suffering through those annoying tests Ginny likes so much."

Gabrielle nodded, "She'll have to do a full workup on the new girls anyways." Some of the younger girls groaned.

Keira smiled, "You can tell me all about it while we wait."

Later that night the Scoobies found themselves in the lounge of the keep listening to Dawn and Xander's stories from their vacation.

Willow smiled as Dawn finished another story. "I'm glad you two had fun, so what did you think about the world?"

"It was interesting, definitely a good place to gather help for demon hunting. I'm sort of amazed that my daughter can create such fascinating worlds."

Xander grinned, "Well it was oddly erotic, mind blowingly aggravating and creepy all wrapped up into one. Hopefully we can get some results from the lab as to the possibility of fixing some of the more glaring genetic issues with the girls."

"Hey if anyone can solve the issue it's our Fred." Willow grinned, "Besides it gives her a chance to get to know her new staff."

Buffy chuckled, "I'm just bitter I didn't get invited to play paintball with everyone."

Dawn chuckled, "I'm sure we can arrange something."

"So how did Anya take to Leah?"

Xander chuckled, "First thing she did was steal her when we got back, trust me it's a good thing the walls are sound proof."

Willow chuckled as she turned to look at Dawn, "So what about you and this new girl?"

Dawn grinned, "While she doesn't have as long a tongue as you, she's a lot of fun."

Buffy shook her head, her gaze danced between Willow and Hermione, "I still can't believe you two are alright with Dawn and another girl."

Hermione chuckled, "She doesn't mind when I have sex with Harry or Ginny or both at once, why should we mind if she has a girl she likes to play with on the side. Doesn't mean she's going to like me any less, does it?"

Dawn shook her head, "Of course not."

Buffy chuckled, "I still think you're a bit greedy, hogging all of the cute ones."

Willow giggled, "Hey you just need to find yourself a cute girl and have some mind blowing sex and stop worrying about all the guys you turn evil."

"Technically that only happened once, the rest…" Buffy shrugged, "well okay so maybe I should just swear off guys."

Dawn frowned, "Did I miss something? What happened with Adam?"

"Nothing, still lots of nice spark-age there but long distance relationships, blah."

Dawn sighed, "So changing the subject off my sister's boring love life, why did we get called back early anyways? Forgot to ask in the confusion earlier."

Willow sighed, "There ends the fun, basically because we needed the help organizing the setup of a second base."

"Wait does that mean you finally talked Giles into letting us play with the stargate?" Xander smiled brightly.

Willow nodded, "I wouldn't say play but yes, after this last week's attacks on the council storerooms we decided that it would be better to prepare for the worst so to speak."

Xander frowned, "How long do you think we have before the senior partners come storming the gates?"

"I don't know, some of the more public buildings got hit pretty hard yesterday as well. Giles is hoping we can move everything important to a second location."

Dawn frowned, "Anything important stolen?"

"Not really, but that doesn't mean next time won't be worse."

Xander frowned, "Any good news?"

Willow grinned, "Giles and Olive seem to be hitting it off fairly well."

Buffy shook her head to clear it of the horrible images that comment brought forth, "At least he seems more relaxed than he's been in a while. So we have any ideas for setting up a second base camp?"

"A couple but we won't know until the team the SGC let us borrow gets back in the morning."

Buffy frowned, "I'm still not sure involving the military in this is so great an idea."

Hermione nodded, "While you have a point, the people at the SGC have more experience than we do traveling through the stargate."

Willow shrugged, "Might as well let them get the process started."

Dawn grinned, "So where are the girls for their ship building contest anyways?"

"Well Lexie and Breena have pieced together a ship that flies, it's not pretty as it's built of salvaged parts from Breena's world, but as it's just a prototype they're really happy about it."

"What happened to the plan to have the droids make ships?"

"Nothing, they have made a couple but those are just copies of other people's designs."

Buffy shook her head, real life spaceships, it was sort of funny in a way. She would never have figured it would happen in her life time, at least not a truly viable long distance craft. She tried to suppress the feeling that by the girls playing around with strange new technologies they were just going to get themselves in trouble. "So do we have a plan?"

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, listen to what the survey team says then plot accordingly."

Xander grinned, "I sort of want my own spaceship."

"You're a geek."

He shrugged, "Oh please, I've seen you drooling over the ship designs."

Willow grinned, "Well we'll see what they have for us in the morning."

Dawn grinned, "And now if there is nothing else I'm going to drag my two wives back to our room and make up for lost time."

Buffy shook her head as she watched her sister hurry Willow and Hermione out of the room. She turned to face Xander, "Why do I feel like the only single person here?"

Xander shrugged with a grin on his face, "Probably because you are?"

Buffy sighed, "Maybe I'll just start wearing a sign."

He chuckled, "Nah that smacks of desperation."

She chuckled, "So tell me more about your trip and how the girls did."

He chuckled, "Well aside from the paintball games we had some fun hunting pirates. One of the times.."

She smiled as she relaxed as he started into his story, it had taken a while but the last couple of years were fairly good. Just enough slaying to keep her inner slayer happy, not to mention enough time to have fun with her friends. Life was great which was why she was fairly sure it was going to change soon. It seemed like that was always the case with the Scoobies. Still it wasn't an unpleasant thought, it simply was how her life worked.

John O'Neill once known as Jack to his friends, though if you wanted to be technical he had only really been called Jack for a few days at the start of his life, looked around the world he and his new team found themselves on. They were on top a forested hill with a nice view of the mountains through a break in the trees. While he was fairly sure he was looking at the Cascades and Mount Rainier it had been a long time since the other Jack had been on the western side of the mountains so he decided to hold his tongue for now. He glanced at his commander for the mission, one Lieutenant Weber, "So what now?"

Weber frowned, he didn't particularly care for the smart assed civilian consultant in the form of one John O'Neill. There was just something about the guy that rubbed him the wrong way, probably the fact that the twenty three year old had somehow made it into a top secret program after only four years of college with a bachelor's degree in anthropology. "We do what you geeks are trained for, look for signs of life."

Amanda chuckled, "I thought I was the geek sir?"

Lieutenant Weber sighed, he blamed the civilian money that had flooded the program a couple of years ago for the influx of as far as he was concerned under qualified personal to step through the gate. Amanda Burns was the team's electronics specialist and while she had been in the reserves she wasn't as far as he was concerned up to muster. "Deal with it. And get the damn remote plane in the air." He stalked off to talk to the group leader of the twelve marines assigned to him for the mission.

Jack sighed, while he might only have a four year degree to his name, he had over thirty years of military experience from the other Jack's memories that were telling him that Weber was going to be a real problem. "Hopefully nothing goes fubar on the mission and we can get back. Still I wouldn't mind having someone useful for command."

Amanda chuckled as she helped Jack break out the electric remote controlled reconnaissance plane. "You get it up in the air and I'll set up the laptop."

He nodded, he knew that despite her being a wiz at electronics she wasn't that good at flying the remote controlled planes. Still, it wasn't like he minded, besides it kept him from planning ways to shoot Weber and leave his body behind.

Jack sighed as he let some dirt trail through his fingers, he half wished Daniel was there, he would have loved walking around the deserted village, and while yes he had a degree it was more geared toward dealing with cultures rather than archeology like his old friend. Okay so mostly he had needed a major and physics hadn't interested him nearly as much as something that allowed him to skate by. He shrugged, still it looked enough like some of the Native American structures that he was fairly sure that the structures at least had that as a base influence. They had spotted the abandoned camp with the plane and had went looking for civilization, sadly they had found one wrecked village after another on their way to what was possibly a landing site, it wasn't helping the team's mood. He was actually vaguely relieved that while at the sixth camp site he found traces of Jaffa weaponry. At least that gave him a better idea of what was going on. He was fairly sure that a Goa'uld was scavenging this world for troops.

An hour later found him scowling as he looked at a Goa'uld ship, at least it was just an Al'kesh and not a Goa'uld mother ship. Of course if this world had anything like the protected planets treaty then they wouldn't want to risk bringing a mother ship to earth. Still actually seeing the Goa'uld here changed the mission slightly. "We should head back and report."

Weber shook his head, he could see several Jaffa milling about around the ship. "We should take them out and get some information out of them."

Jack shook his head, "While they might not outnumber us our orders state that we aren't to engage in fights if we don't have to."

"What are you chicken shit?"

Jack sighed, "No, but we don't have any idea what is on this world let alone how many Goa'uld they have in the area." He swore he was going to scream at Daniel for assigning him to the same mission as this idiot. "For all we know fighting back would give the Goa'uld in charge a reason to send more troops here. You're being unreasonable."

"That's sir, You're being unreasonable sir."

Jack started swearing.

Jack grumbled as he was 'hauled' back to the gate by two large marines.

Amanda snickered, "You probably shouldn't have called him a fucking moron."

Jack sighed, "Yeah well, he is."

Patrick O'Malley chuckled, "Just cause it's true doesn't mean it needs to be said. Though honestly I'm sure someone in charge is hoping the guy gets himself killed."

Jason grinned, "Oh come on he's good for a couple of things." He smiled at their glares, "He's extremely bad at poker and can't hold his liquor worth shit and he likes to gamble."

Patrick chuckled, "I'll give you that one. You want to do the honors of reporting the mission while we wait?"

Amber chuckled, "Sure." She walked over to the dial home device and started pressing the various symbols until she dialed all nine of them. She watched the gate activate with it's usual enthusiasm. She flipped her radio on and tossed it to Jack, "Go for it."

Jack sighed, "Stargate command, this is John O'Neill we have a situation here."

Walter's voice crackled back over the radio, "What's the problem?"

"Despite our warnings he decided take most of the marines and charge off to attack a Goa'uld Al'kesh we found. He didn't like my suggestion to wait for backup sir."

Amanda snickered, "It was probably how he said it."

Walter shook his head, "Let me check with the General."

Jack couldn't help but scowl as he waited for more orders, while this wasn't his first trip through the gate as 'John' it was an important mission if he wanted to continue taking trips through the gate. Jack was just about ready to give up waiting and shut the gate down when Walter responded.

"You have new orders, either bug out or wait for the Watcher's Council's team and help them out. It's no longer your responsibility."

Jack nodded, "Understood, let me confer with the team." He flipped the switch off on the radio, "Looks like we're done, I'm not going to blame anyone if they want to step through the gate, but I wouldn't mind sticking it to the goa'uld that think they can raid earth, even if it's not my earth."

Amanda nodded, "I'll stay."

Patrick glanced at Jason, "We're not going to let a bunch of snakes steal people without a fight."

Jack nodded, he flipped the radio, "Alright Walter we're staying send in the backup."

"Acknowledged."

Amanda took her hand off the button so the gate could close.

Jack sighed, "So now we wait."

Xander eyed the gate with distaste, "You sure about this Willow?"

She chuckled, "Hey we've tested it several times, nothing bad happened to the rest of us."

"So who do I get to take?"

"Who do you want to take?"

Xander thought about it for a few seconds, "Gabrielle for general magic use, Helen for a sniper, Morrigan for sneaking and Jenny for a medic."

Willow nodded, "Just keep them safe, and wear your armor and make sure they are wearing theirs."

Jack jumped slightly when the gate powered up. He wasn't sure what he was expecting for backup but a young man that didn't look much older than he did and three teenaged girls all in some sort of body armor wasn't what he was expecting. "I hope you're from the council."

Xander grinned, "That would be us, I'm Xander, this is Gabrielle, Helen, Morrigan, and the pink haired one is Jenny, so what and where is the problem?"

Gabrielle glanced at Jason, "Put your tongue back in your mouth, they're mine."

Jason grinned, "Didn't know they made solders so cute."

Gabrielle chuckled, "You have no idea."

Patrick frowned as he noticed that two of the girls were carrying something that looked like a futuristic riffle on their backs, while the other two had larger weapons strapped to their backs. "What are those?"

Helen smiled, "Plasma riffle, designed for stopping bio-engineered warriors, should do plenty of damage against Jaffa."

Patrick blinked, "Oh nice, where can I get one of those?"

"They are a bit heavy but if you want I'm sure Morrigan will lend you hers."

Morrigan nodded before passing over the weapon. "Not my favorite weapon."

Patrick blinked at the weight, while it wasn't impossible to lift it was far heavier than he would have guessed by the way the girl was moving it around with one hand.

Jason frowned, "What I don't get one?"

Jenny smiled as she passed him her smaller elemental riffle and an ammo box. "You can have mine, I'm better with a pistol anyways."

Jason smiled at the pink haired girl, "Thanks."

Jack frowned, "What's the benefit?"

Xander grinned, "Heavier hitting and quiet."

Jack nodded, "If you'll follow me. I'll show you where the ship was."

Xander nodded for Jack to lead, while he was technically in charge the guy seemed like he had his head on straight so far, why rock the boat.

Jack wanted to curse as he saw the Jaffa patrol, apparently getting attacked had pushed them on high alert. He carefully shot one of the people with a zat as the rest of his "team" stepped from behind cover and opened fire on the others in the patrol.

Patrick blinked as his weapon discharged a bolt of energy that ripped a large hole straight through the Jaffa he was aiming at. "What the hell are you fighting that this is standard?"

Jack despite his surprise quickly zat'ed the rest that weren't quite dead.

Xander shrugged, "Things that make Jaffa look like innocent school girls."

Jason frowned as he looked at his gun, "So what's the deal with this gun, it looked like the impact round burst into flame."

Xander nodded, "Yeah, that's about right. The shells are fire based. We were in a bit of a hurry and didn't have time to swap out the ammo."

Jason blinked, "Expensive?"

Xander nodded, "Time consuming to make the damn things."

"I'll try not to waste ammo."

"That would be appreciated."

Jason smirked as he watched Jenny tie the prisoners up. "I'm guessing you've done this before?"

She smiled, "Just a few times."

Xander frowned as he twisted the ring, on his hand, the same ring that had been enchanted to translate languages, "Why are you here? Who do you serve and why do you dare the Asgard's wrath."

The Jaffa wanted to spit in the human's face the man was standing too far away. "The mighty Nirrti will crush you. We do not fear the Asgard."

Helen chuckled, "Yeah sure you don't, that's why you're sneaking around in a stealth ship collecting people for experimentation. Yeah because that makes so much sense."

Xander chuckled, "Just be happy he can't understand you."

Jack frowned at Xander, how the hell a civilian learned Goa'uld was beyond him especially considering that they were fairly sure that the only exposure their world had to the Goa'uld was viable the research the SGC turned over to them. "How can you understand him?"

Xander chuckled as he held up his ring, "Universal translator, works wonders."

Jack blinked, "Damn that would have been so handy."

Xander chuckled as he went back to questioning the Jaffa, mostly it just involved leading him around so that he was thinking about the answers so that Helen could pick the answers out of his head with telepathy. It was probably less than fair but really if half the stuff he had heard about the Goa'uld was true then he didn't really care.

Xander finished Zating the Jaffa to make sure they were out for the count before starting toward the ship. "Morrigan if you want to deal with the people on the ship we'll clean up out here."

She smiled, "Sure, don't have too much fun without me."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Just leave some of them alive."

"You're no fun love."

Patrick, Amanda and Jason blinked in shock as Morrigan vanished from view.

Jack raised an eyebrow, "You've got some really nice toys."

Xander smirked, "Yes they do, just wish I had half as many. Shall we?"

Jack smirked, "I'm half hoping Weber is still alive so that he can see my smirking face when we rescue him."

Xander couldn't help but chuckle.

Jack couldn't help whistling as he looked around the ship. There were a number of bodies piled up against the wall. He glanced over to where Morrigan was busy tying the last of the unconscious Jaffa up. "Nice work, though I don't think they all count when you can go invisible."

Xander chuckled, "I keep telling her that, luckily she ignores me."

Morrigan frowned, "The rest of your team are down below in the ceils, your commander is an idiot, but I suppose the rest of the troops are salvageable, what do you want to do with them?"

Gabrielle grinned, "Well if we let them out we can stick the Goa'uld prisoners in there rather than just have them tied up laying on the floor."

Jack pretended to consider it for a bit, "Probably should let them out. I don't suppose we can leave Weber in the cell?"

Gabrielle snickered, "Only if you gag him."

Jack smiled as he took the lift to the prison floor, "While it's a happy thought, too many witnesses."

Weber glared at Jack after being released, "You were supposed to go back to the gate."

Jack sighed, "I did, we called for backup and that's exactly what we got, a thank you for saving your sorry asses would be appreciated."

Weber glared at Jack, "Fuck you, we wouldn't have been stuck if we had had a bit more firepower." He glanced at Patrick and Jason, "You were supposed to come back after dropping him off."

Patrick shrugged, "New orders from base said to withdraw and not engage until the backup showed up."

Weber glanced at the young girls and faintly sneered, "These are your backup? Where are the rest?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Rest? Nah it only took one of us to clean out the ship. By the way, you're going to be written up for not following orders and potentially ruining a perfectly good base. If the Jaffa had captured you and tortured secrets out of you, then we would be stuck with them having advanced warning that there was someone here that could resist them. You really should think before you act."

He shook his head, "There is no way one of you took out all of the guards. Stop lying girl."

Xander sighed, "Jack can I borrow that snake flashy thing?"

Jack smiled as he handed over the Zat. "Sure."

"Oh please what are you going to do with that?"

Xander shrugged, "I'm going to shoot you if you don't shut your mouth, because you're about this close to Gabrielle kicking you in the nuts for calling her friend a liar."

"Well the bitch is a liar, there ain't no way." Weber fell over as Xander shot him with the Zat. He looked around at the rest of the crew, "Anyone else?"

Patrick shook his head, "Well now that that is settled, I don't suppose you care if we get a copy of the computer system to take back with us?"

Xander shook his head, "Go for it Amanda. That should help with the cost of the mission."

Jack smiled, Carter would appreciate being able to look at the scientific information in the computers and he was fairly sure Daniel would enjoy comparing the worlds.

Morrigan grinned, "So who's going to teach me to fly my new ship?"

Gabrielle chuckled, "You can have it after we figure out what type of cloak can hide it from the Asgard. Hopefully it's in the schematics on the ship's computer as well."

Jack grinned, "We should probably call headquarters back."

Xander nodded, "Morrigan do a sweep of the area and haul any surviving Jaffa to the jail. Helen you're with me, and Gaby look over the computers with Amanda, see if you can figure out anything useful from them."

Morrigan grinned before vanishing from sight. Helen shook her head, "Show off. Let's get going."

Jack watched most of marines haul the unconscious Weber through the stargate. Most of the marines had decided to leave, Patrick, Jason and Miles, a friend of theirs in the unit had decided to stay as backup until the computer download was completed. It seemed worth the effort considering it wouldn't take more than a couple of hours. Besides if he was honest with himself he was looking forward to seeing what the Watcher's Council wanted with this earth.

Xander blinked, "What year is it?"

Amanda shrugged, "If the info is correct it's September fifteenth in the year fourteen hundred and ninety nine."

He blinked, "We traveled back in time?"

Gabrielle frowned, "Unlikely, it's more likely that the dimensions are just out of sink time wise. It should be stable enough to use as a base. So how do you want to deal with the displaced people the Goa'uld stole?"

Xander shrugged, "It's possible they have maps in the Al'kesh, we might be able to track them down, we'll have to see. This changes stuff, we should probably get Lexie and Breena here sooner than later, perhaps we can even talk the SGC into sending us someone that knows the history of their world a bit better and can compare things."

Later that next day, Daniel Jackson smirked as he noticed John O'Neill looking over the notes from the computer. "Hey found anything yet?"

John scowled, "Did you know Weber was such an idiot?"

"I'd had some complaints from some of the other civilians, figured you could deal with anything he dished out. You'll be happy to know he got drop kicked from the program."

John rolled his eyes, "Gee thanks a lot space monkey. Anyways, as far as I can tell Nirrti decided she needed a wider range of test subjects. So she's sneaking them from places they won't be missed. It's sort of strange thinking about a great number of the Goa'uld we killed over the years being alive and well in this dimension."

Daniel smiled, "It was hard not dialing the gate just to see if Abydos was there or not."

John nodded, "It's probably the home of Ra. From what I can tell it looks similar enough to our earth, though a couple of things are strange. I'm not exactly sure why the gate was moved. Maybe you'll have better luck than me." He handed Daniel the laptop.

Lexie smiled as she walked into the room to join the two men. "Do you have any idea what happened to the gate that sent it thousands of miles from where it was supposed to be?"

Daniel smiled, "I think so, but it's a weird account. John only found it because he was opening files at random."

Jack shrugged, "Hey it worked."

"The legend passed down was that one dark night a goddess of vengeance answered the call of the people and drove Ra from this world. The skies were said to have filled with clouds and rained lightening from the heavens at her call. The goddess then cursed the stargate in such a way that any Goa'uld or Jaffa that came through died of a wasting sickness. With the promise of the goddess's return should the goa'uld return to this world it was ruled off limits by the system lords."

Lexie blinked, "So thunder and lightening eh?"

John nodded, "Twenty says the Asgard interfered."

Daniel shrugged, "We don't know that but we don't know of any other race that could scare the Goa'uld enough to get them to leave a world. We also don't know why the gate was moved or even how. The records in the computer indicate that the gate was in Egypt. So I don't really think that she knows the gate was near. Sort of strange really."

Lexie nodded, "If we aren't going to have to worry about every Goa'uld in the galaxy coming for us, I think we should start with the base building. See if you can narrow it down to where her base is."

Daniel nodded, "Sure, there is a lot to wade through."

"We'll try to get some shelter set up."

Xander looked over at where Gabrielle was working on her laptop in the field near the gate, "So what are the mini satellites saying?"

"You want the good news or the bad news first?"

"Hit me."

"Well the good news is we have a lot of empty land we can claim. The bad news is that it's rather empty of people because a homicidal Goa'uld did something to the people over most of the west coast of the American continent."

"Okay that seems like a large number of people to steal, what did she do with them all?"

"That's the bad news, I've no idea, it could have been biological or viral or a simple snatch and grab on a large scale. I'm not sure, I'm still having the satellites take pictures and record. Hopefully I'll have a better world map for you in a couple of days. Not only that but a better idea of how much land we can get away with claiming."

Xander nodded, "How much you thinking?"

"Most of the west coast, and preferably all the way up to and including Alaska. I mean we are going to set up a country and powerbase we might as well claim enough land to make it worth it."

He sighed, once upon a time the idea of claiming a large country sized chunk of land would have bothered him, something about it being immoral or greedy but over the years he had come to understand that power really did come in the form of a willingness to take advantage of a situation. He hadn't captured or destroyed the people living on the coast, but the simple fact was that if things went the same way as they had in her world then the native people would be crushed when the powers of Europe come and ravaged the land and people. He didn't see a reason to let people destroy something as pristine as the old forests and if it meant claiming the area then he was willing to claim it. "You just want to be a queen."

Gabrielle grinned, "Hey I plan to live forever, why settle for anything less. Besides the girls self reproduce, we are going to need the space at some point."

"So I'm guessing there is magic here?"

"Almost as much as back home, way more than some of the alternate earths and more than the stargate world."

He nodded, "So, it's possible that there are demons here?"

"I'm not exactly sure but I'm guessing at least some type of magic users exist. So how are we going to deal with the Goa'uld?"

He glanced around before whispering, "Hopefully we can get Lexie's robots up and running and mining. Then we have the manufacturing ones start making a shipyard."

"So where are you thinking for that?"

"I'm thinking about setting up a base on Mount Saint Helens, it's active enough and should provide plenty of geothermal power to power the manufacturing plant we want to build there."

She frowned, "Should it bother me that you've obviously thought about this type of stuff before?"

He chuckled, "Anya likes to play real time strategy games that involve taking over the world. I might have picked up a few things."

She rolled her eyes, "Well if that's the plan our first order of business should be to set up a wall around the country. It doesn't exactly help when anyone can wander in and steal your game or resources."

"That's a large area, what are you thinking?"

"Well Lexie and I were looking at teams of Breena's world's robots and letting them build it. We would just have to do a little bit of mapping."

"That's why you're playing with maps?"

"Yep, manufacturing plant, robot legion then I want to see about setting up a couple of research communities. After that we'll see what comes."

"Any other fiendish plans?"

She smiled, "Well, I didn't until I got off the magic phone with the sibs."

"Oh dear."

"Hey now, I didn't even say anything yet. How do you know it was going to be bad?"

"Because I know them?"

"Fine, Rose sort of has an idea about taking over Brittan and becoming a queen there. Leo suggested stealing the oil from under a couple of places in Texas and in the middle east. Lillian and Lenora have a plan to wander around the world and collect some magic using children and make a school. Oh and my ideas of practicing my spell to turn people into pokegirls probably count as evil even if they deserve it."

He nodded, "Yep evil, I think I'm going to see what the SGC guys are thinking for dealing with Nirrti, as she seems to be the only Goa'uld that has broken the edict in years. Hopefully if we can deal with her the others will continue being clueless until it's too late."

"We can hope."


	30. A world of Sin

Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the various Buffy characters nor any of the other various characters I've borrowed from various places.

John O'Neill looked a little green as he exited the Al'kesh. "Lily might be a good medic but a fighter pilot she isn't."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Yeah well not everyone can be perfect."

Lily scowled, "Hey now, just because I'm not scary good at it like you doesn't mean I can't fly."

Jack half heartedly glared at Lily, "So you're saying that the tree just jumped out in front of us?"

"Yes, okay not really but damn it, it was just the top part."

"Just be happy we weren't going that fast."

Lily sighed, "I'll just have to talk to the team building the new craft to make sure the steering in it doesn't suck as badly as the Goa'uld design."

Jack chuckled, "You know that's not a bad idea."

Gabrielle smiled, "So have you thought about the job offer some more?"

Everyone that stayed had been offered the chance to sign up with the watcher's council. Or at least this branch, he had spent the night considering his decision, tossing ideas back and forth but his thoughts had always come back to the simple fact that no matter how much he tried he was never going to really fit back home. As time went on there would be too many comparisons between him and his old self. Not to mention losing his rank had hurt, okay so it was the other Jack's rank but damn it he had the memories. While he was different enough to appreciate going back to school, at least he had for the first few months, he had to admit that he wasn't really looking forward to proving himself all over again which he would have to if he went back. He glanced over at Gabrielle, 'Ah hell, in for a penny in for a pound,' "So if I stay what rank do I get?"

She chuckled, "Well Daniel spilled the beans on you, not to mention that Xander likes you, so while we are still working details out, I'm sure we can offer you at least a command type rank, possibly knight commander."

John considered a minute, he had given Daniel permission to say what he had to in order to get the job offer so it wasn't like he had much right to complain about him spilling the beans on that particular secret, "So do people have to call me sir?"

"Well I'm sure we could work something out."

He grinned, "Do I get to play around with the high tech toys I saw?"

"What fun would running around the galaxy be if you didn't get cool toys?"

He grinned, "Alright, I'm sure Daniel will understand when I resign to work for you guys, sign me up."

Gabrielle grinned, "Excellent, now I just have to talk Patrick and Jason into signing up."

"Toss in one of those plasma guns and some toys and I'm sure they would be willing to transfer as well."

"I'll work on it."

Patrick couldn't help but grin as he watched his new boss Gabrielle give her sister a kiss before Rose entered the Al'kesh. Say what you want about incest but damn, it was still fun watching two cute girls kiss. He had had one of those days that just blew the mind, in some ways the day he found out the stargate program was real was less of a shock. After he had been sworn in as a knight of the new realm, which was going to be named Avalon, he had been told that magic was real and had been offered enough proof to cause his world to spin. The lesser shocks of the day had been that Morrigan was in reality a light blue skinned elf girl with purple hair that used magic to hide her true form, it had only been a slight shock to find out that Helen was in fact not completely human in that she had horns. He figured he was taking things in stride as well as could be expected.

Xander smirked as the passed another bottle to Jason and Patrick. "So any questions?"

Jason was a fairly large athletic man that had made it through life on a combination of wit, muscle, skill, smarts and more than a dash of humor. "You tell us demons and magic are real, that we might have to face our darkest fears in the line of duty, so yeah I got a question, how do we kill the things?"

Patrick frowned, "That's it? How do we kill them? That's the best you can think of?"

Jason grinned, "Well I could have asked how long until we hunt down Nirrti but I figured some one would drop us a line when that happened."

"Ah well I guess I should have listened a bit more when my Grams told her old scary stories."

Xander chuckled, "Well hopefully we can deal with Nirrti sooner than later. I don't really like the idea of a Goa'uld running around out there that knows earth is defenseless. It's going to be a while before we'll be ready to defend earth on a ship to ship level."

Patrick raised his beer, "Here's to hoping that the ancient chair is still operational."

"I'll drink to that. You want to know the good news or the bad news?"

Patrick blinked, "Oh?"

Jason shrugged, "Bad news first."

"I've got an assignment for you when you finish your beer."

Patrick frowned, "What's the good news?"

"It's a gear request assignment." Xander grinned as he passed a folder to each of the men. "These are lists of tech we have available, on the second page is a list of magical devices we can produce, on the last page is a request form, that's where you list anything else that you might need gear wise. Be sure to note if it's a personal request or a something that should be given to every team."

Jason flipped through the list, "Rings of invisibility?"

Patrick blinked, "You can actually make those?"

Xander sighed, "Sort of, we have a couple of prototypes, if you're standing still or mostly still then you're almost completely invisible, the faster you move though the more you blur. In other words if you're sneaking, move slowly in a crawl."

Jason grinned, "Still going to be down on my list."

Patrick flipped his folder open and started reading, "Some of this stuff looks dangerous."

"Just a bit, one of the reasons that you'll be taking a class on dealing with magical items and some of the other high tech equipment."

He nodded, "I can see the reasoning there."

Xander chuckled, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to see a certain witch about stuff." They nodded as he left. He couldn't help but chuckle at the kid in a candy store look the two new knights had. He knew that if people had offered him some of the 'toys' he had just offered the men the first question would have been what's the catch. Well the catch was the possibility of an early death from any number of things that the new realm had to fight. Still he figured it was worth trying to build something, besides Gabrielle's projects always turned out interesting. Though this was a bit larger in scale than the rest he had no doubts that it would be interesting.

Rose grinned as she looked around the town of Dover, it reminded her a little of some of the old wizarding villages, at least if you removed the flying broomsticks and such things. The people seemed on edge, almost afraid, not that she could blame them with the number of church inquisitors walking the streets shouting about witchcraft and burning witches. Apparently the people here believed in magic enough to worry about witches. She had come to this particular town when she learned that the king's eldest son Arthur was sick with some malady and that the crown was offering a substantial reward for a cure. She had hoped it would be as simple as walking in and curing the prince but alas such wasn't the case. The church was apparently hell-bent on keeping anything supernatural away from the crown. After talking with a few people she had found out that Pope Alexander the sixth had apparently decided that the risk of the crown allowing pagan influences back into the isle was too great to ignore. The priests were out in full force preaching that God's will would be done.

She watched in horror as one of the inquisitors turned and pointed some type of compass at her, "Witch, fey spawn."

She had been prepared to ignore the stupid inquisitors until one of them proved that the church was using magic by pulling out a whistle and blowing it. The sound sent shivers through her bones and made her skin want to crawl off her body. She doubled over in pain, she noticed that no one else was on the ground gasping in pain. What ever the hell that whistle was, it apparently only affected magic users as the towns folk didn't look effected. She could barely concentrate enough to thank the stars that Taika her research pokegirl had continued on with Morrigan to London before she felt a cudgel hit her on her head and everything went black.

Pan couldn't keep the frown off her face as she watched from the relative safety of the tower and adjusted the cotton in her long pointed ears. She had snuck up to the top of the thing in order to find out what was happening in the square. While she felt really bad about not being able to do anything, she was grateful that she couldn't hear the witch's screams as the church inquisitors tortured the poor girl chained in the middle of the square with cold iron. She shivered and rubbed her own wrist where a brush with the stuff had left a burn mark a few years ago that still hadn't completely faded. She was a bit confused on why the girl had just wandered into town, it was almost as if she didn't know about the inquisitors, which was silly as they were all over the countryside searching out magic in order to destroy it in the name of the church and their damned god. She shivered as the church inquisitors hauled the girl away.

Jack glanced around at what had been Nirrti's main lab, "Let's hurry, I don't want the rest of the Jaffa coming in here guns blazing."

Amanda smiled as she set her new computer up to download the Goa'uld's research data. "I'm just glad we were able to sneak in here."

Patrick grinned, "Well if you count having to kill all of the Jaffa between here and the gate and zating them all to less than dust sneaking in, then okay. Do we actually get to blow something up on the way out?"

Jason grinned, "I've been looking forward to testing out my new rifle a bit more."

Jack shook his head as he glanced at the black sealed morgue bag Nirrti was currently stuffed in, "While I would love to just zat Nirrti a second and third time just to make sure she's dead before blowing this place to hell, we've got orders to bring her back so we can download her mind into a computer. We're hoping that if we pool everything we have we can figure out something to help the Asgard back on the other earth as well as possibly here." At Patrick's raised eyebrows, "I don't like it anymore than you do, hell I like it a lot less."

Amanda grinned as she finished downloading all of the Goa'uld's files, she typed a few commands then shot the interface with her pistol, "I've set the self destruct, let's get the hell out of here."

Jack grinned as he watched the temple explode, it had been a bit tricky getting out with the damn snake but they had managed, barely, he would have to talk to Amanda about setting more time on the self destruct next time.

Rose couldn't help the fact that her skin wanted to crawl off her bones as the inquisitors opened the door to her cell. Her torture had been made worse by the fact that she could barely understand the Latin they were speaking in. She had "lost" her ring as well her pentagram necklace and coin purse when they had ripped them off of her, apparently being a pagan in these parts was a burnable offense, normally you could recant and such but as a witch there really wasn't a way out of it. So after she had been dragged out and tortured by something that felt like red hot metal she had been tossed back in the warded rooms so that she couldn't escape. Not that she had any real clue how to get out of here as she was currently blind from having her eyes burned out. She was just hoping that she could figure out something before they burned her to death in the morning. She was really wishing that she hadn't come to England or had at least paid more attention. If she had still had eyes she would have glared at the 'holy' symbols carved into the walls and painted with fresh blood. Even without them she could have pointed them out exactly as she could feel the wrongness pouring off of them. She wasn't sure how something written in the blood of sacrifices could be considered holy but apparently in the eyes of the church any sin was forgiven to combat witchcraft.

Pan couldn't believe she was creeping through the sewer under the small abbey, the place was worse than disgusting, she would have to scourer herself with soap when she got out. She tried really hard not to breathe through her nose, maybe more than a few times to get clean she decided. She was just pissed that her familiar had refused to come with. The damn girl should have come with her, after all it was her fault she was down here, stupid spirit insight and all that. She carefully traced a symbol on the stone ceiling which she was fairly sure was the floor of the cell. It was a time consuming thing summoning enough magic without her familiar at her side, she hoped that the nature of the dark magic in the cell would keep her slow build up of power from being detected.

Rose felt herself fall through the floor as it gave out from under her, the first thing to assault her senses was the horrid smell, the next was the cold muddy water she found herself in, she tried not to fight the small hands that helped steady her, a soft female voice whispered words she almost understood before pulling her down the horrid smelling passageway.

Pan was happy to have gotten out of the town and into the forest before the guards had known anything was wrong, they had spent some time removing most of the filth from their clothes before she risked a small cantrip to remove what was left of the mess from their clothes. She couldn't help but wince at the burn marks on the other girl's skin. "I'm Pan, you're?"

Rose tried to focus through the pain enough to understand, "I'm Rose, don't suppose you could drag me some place safe as I heal?"

Pan frowned, she had thought the girl said her name was a flower, and something about healing. "We're safe enough here, for now, the church shouldn't know you're gone before morning."

While Rose couldn't quite understand the other girl she had caught the Gaelic word for safe so figured she was safe enough to slip into a healing trance.

Pan frowned as the girl fell asleep, she sighed. She glanced over to where her familiar spirit was hiding. "Get out here Azreal."

The sometimes cat, sometimes bird, some times raccoon frowned up at her girl, "You don't have to shout, I already told you what I know."

Pan stuck her tongue out at her raccoon familiar, "How is she supposed to help?"

"I don't know, I just know she is. I can feel her magic, it's healing her, she should be safe enough to move by morning."

Leo woke from his nightmare gasping for breath, he shook himself as he tried to calm the raising panic he felt, he fumbled with his phone. He quickly dialed Rose's number, he frowned as he got no response, his panic increased as he knew that the only way it wouldn't work was it being in a heavily warded compartment, such as the one from his dream. He swept from his bed and rushed to the door only to have it burst open when an anxious bunch of siblings tumbled in.

Gabrielle glanced at Leo's face, "I'm guessing you had the dream as well?"

Leo nodded grimly, "Yeah, I couldn't reach her."

"We couldn't either, we got a hold of Taika and Morrigan. They had taken the ship to London, Giles wanted them to check on a couple of things. Morrigan said they dropped Rose off outside of a town called Dover before heading to London. She's heading back our way with the ship."

Lillian frowned, "I'm not sure I like this world any more."

Gabrielle's face tightened with a grimace, "We'll get her back. Once we get closer I should be able to get a mental link up and going and she can tell us how to find her."

Leo nodded, "We should tell Uncle Xander and Aunt Willow."

Gabrielle shook her head, "Not until we get her back, Mom might lose it and then we would have more problems then just a missing sibling. Besides if we can't deal with our own problems the parents are never going to let us run things."

He shook his head, "I'm going to at least tell Xander in case things go badly."

"I guess I can't complain about that."

Rose blinked as the morning light hit her overly sensitive newly regenerated eyes, "I feel like shit still but I think I'm in one piece."

Pan blinked as the girl opened her eyes, the irises were glowing bright green, "You're eyes."

Rose blinked a few times trying to get them used to the light, "Where are we?"

Pan frowned, "Where? The forest, the tribe isn't far."

Rose shrugged, she thought the girl had said something about tribe and maybe that it was far way but she wasn't sure. Her stomach rumbled, "Food?"

Pan smiled as she handed the other girl a crusty loaf of bread, it had been a bit old when she had stolen it two days ago but at least it was something.

Rose worked on chewing the bread as they walked through the forest.

Jack was more than happy when he got to Zat the snake called Nirrti after they extracted all of the information from it. Apparently she really had been the only one that knew Earth stood defenseless. Jack was still a bit sick from learning that all of her test subjects had died in one twisted experiment after another, if anything this version's Nirrti was even more insane than the one back home. He just hoped the genetic information was worth it. He had been pleasantly surprised upon learning that Amanda actually liked writing the mission reports. It left him more time to wander around.

Xander glanced over at where John was leaning against a tree watching the night sky, "Couldn't sleep?"

"Nah, still not used to the difference in time zones I guess. Maybe in a few days. Do you miss it?"

Xander glanced up at the stars that John was looking at, "Miss what?"

"Not knowing there was things out there waiting to kill you."

Xander chuckled, "I've known there were things out there trying to eat me since I was fifteen, so more than twenty years now, you get used to it. No sense in worrying about such things, besides we have your team to deal with the little demon snakes."

Jack nodded, "Can't really say that I'm not enjoying being back in the thick of things."

Xander chuckled, "Any suggestions on locations to explore next?"

John shrugged, "I'll give it some thought."

Xander nodded, "I'll leave you to it."

Rose glanced around the gypsy camp, she could tell that there was a touch of the faerie in some of the people. There was the little things, sparkling eyes, pointed ears and then there was the big things like the various familiars running around the camp. "Wow." She could feel the magic in the air in the camp, it felt nice and clean verses the icky feeling oozing off the priests. Heck even the young boy with a small winged girl riding on his shoulder felt less icky than the priests and she was fairly sure the girl was a demon of some type. She noticed as one of the adults with a large red wolf walked over, he was dressed like a pirate or a performer.

Robin smiled, "What did you find Pan?" The wolf sniffed, "You need another bath."

Rose shrugged, "You crawl out of a sewer and see what you smell like without proper soap."

Pan smiled, "I rescued her from the dungeons in Dover, she got tangled up with the priests."

Rose sighed, she was getting fairly annoyed not being able to understand what they were saying. She was sort of wishing she had paid more attention to Giles when he talked about old languages. "Can I rest?"

He nodded, "Rest? Pan you want to show her where to rest."

Rose smiled gratefully as Pan lead her to a sleeping area. She was hoping that with a bit of rest she could finish healing.

Gabrielle glanced around as she stepped off the ship, "Well the location spell I did to find her points to the forest, the one for her gear points to the city."

Leo frowned, "We really should have bound the magical items to her."

Lily sighed, "Live and learn."

"So what's the plan?" He glanced around the lightly wooded section of the forest. 'Do we go after her first or get her equipment first?"

Gabrielle frowned, "As much as I'm loath to leave the stuff in the hands of the church I want to make sure Rose is alright before we storm the gates. I'd also like to know what happened first."

Morrigan nodded, "Who's going to stay with the ship?"

Lillian and Lenora looked at each other, "Don't look at us. I figure it should be fine if we cloak the thing and leave it here. It's not like they can break in."

Gabrielle nodded, "You better be alright."

Rose blinked as she came awake the prodding mental voice of her sister, 'You awake yet?' She yawned, 'Yeah barely, where are you?'

'Walking through a forest looking for you. What the hell happened?"

Rose debated with herself for a brief minute before shrugging, call her spiteful but being tortured for being a witch wasn't exactly one her list of forgivable actions, 'I'll show you.'

'Go for it.'

Gabrielle wasn't all that prepared to get the full download of her sister's experiences but managed to stay standing as the experiences washed over her.

Leo blinked as he felt his sister's magic flare, "You alright?"

"No, not by a long shot. We've got more problems than I thought." She tossed a thought back to Rose before breaking the connection, 'We'll be there soon.'

"How do you feel about removing a blight from the world?"

"That depends on what it is."

"Let me show you." She linked her mind with her friends and shared Rose's memory with her siblings.

Pan wasn't sure what to make of the large group of very grim looking people that walked up to the edge of the forest and requested to speak with Rose. She was however fairly happy to be able to get away from the girl with flaming eyes and magic bleeding out of her skin. The girl seriously needed to get a grip on her emotions otherwise her magic would continue to flare and the church would get her.

Gabrielle hugged Rose to her, "Next time take some backup. No more running off on your own."

Rose nodded, "New rule and everything."

Leo glanced over as he noticed a guy standing a polite distance away seemingly waiting for them to finish. "What can you tell me about the priests? Just humor us please, we are from a long ways away."

Robin frowned, he wasn't sure how someone claiming to be from a long ways away knew his language but he would take him at his word for now. "They didn't used to be so bad, more or less content to leave us alone. However the latest Pope had a personal hatred against magic folk even before he took office. Some say it's because someone cursed him with an ugly face, me I say he always was ugly as hell. Still even that probably wouldn't have been enough but a couple of years ago something changed. Somewhere, somehow he acquired real power, that's when the inquisitors started appearing. A lot of people think that their god gives them the power, but I say hogwash, for more than a thousand years they had no power over the fey then suddenly almost overnight their myth of a god decides to wake up? I don't buy it. But regardless they came prepared with cold iron and symbols of protection against Fey magic. We were forced to flee when several of the villages that had been our homes turned against us and ratted us out to the church. The king was forced to declare any type of witchcraft illegal and lay a death sentence on the heads of everyone not of pure human blood."

Leo scowled, "So you're saying the king allows this mess?"

"He doesn't have much choice, if he didn't then the Pope would bring forth the might of Rome and the rest of the Christian nations and declare the people of the land heretics. Besides that he has more than a touch of fey in his own blood, enough that he doesn't really want the church looking too close."

Leo frowned, "Alright, so do all magic users have the blood of fey in them?"

"No but typically only those with fey blood have all that much power."

"Still doesn't explain what that infernal whistle is."

Robin nodded, "Probably one of their most annoying tools, the less human you are the more it hurts."

"Oh, I guess that explains it. What else do they have?"

"Several have magical compasses that point to sources of magic, not to mention knowledge of wards that prevent a magic user from using their power whilst inside."

Leo sighed, "So are they spell casters themselves?"

"Not that I've seen, but they seem imbued with power from something. They have been pushing harder recently what with the prince's ill health, I suspect that they're afraid that the king would turn against them if someone could save the young prince."

Leo nodded, "Perhaps we should do so. It would at least be a start."

"I wish you luck. I've lost too many already to offer more than advice on how to deal with them."

Gabrielle glanced over, "Are the animals demons?"

Robin frowned, "An interesting question, not like the church would have you believe, they are spirits given form by a piece of our personality. One of the first things a witch learns is how to summon one."

Gabrielle blinked, "Oh, so they help you do magic?"

Robin nodded, "It makes it easier to access magic without going into bedlam."

"What's that?"

"It's much like being drunk, only less fun. The more magic a witch channels the more the magic pushes at the fey blood allowing you to see the magic of the world. The familiars keep us grounded so that we don't start believing things are real that aren't."

The wolf opens his mouth, "We also keep them from calling more spirits while in bedlam. We don't need monsters wandering around the woods."

Robin nodded, "That's one of the reasons we don't like using too much magic."

Rose frowned as she played with the magical translation ring Gabrielle had given her, "I want my ring back. And my necklace."

Gabrielle nodded, "I've never heard of the familiars before, it's an interesting concept. Do you mind if we stay the rest of the day?"

Robin shook his head, "No but we'll probably be gone in the morning to a new location. It's getting harder to make a living these days plus we have to keep moving if we don't want people to call the church on us."

Lillian nodded, "I don't suppose there is someone that could help teach me how to summon a familiar?"

Robin grinned, "Why don't you ask Pan, it would keep her out of trouble."

Pan blinked from her hiding place, "Hey, I don't get into trouble that often."

"Just a bit."

Pan sighed, "Well let's find a good place to sit."

Leo sighed, "You have that look in your eyes."

"Which one?"

"The one that means you're planning something."

"Well I'm just giving some thought to dealing with the church and making sure they pay."

Leo nodded grimly, "We'll make sure they pay in blood."


	31. Down with the inquisition!

Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the various Buffy characters nor any of the other various characters I've borrowed from various places.

High Inquisitor Fernando's face tightened with fury as he listened to one of the acolytes explain how twenty one of his inquisitors had been killed in duals during the night. "Do we know what group is challenging our inquisitors?"

The acolyte tried very hard to glare a hole through the ground as he growled, "Some outland knight from some place called Avalon. I've never heard of such a place."

"Must be some pathetic barony in these backwater lands. No matter, instruct the inquisitors to capture the man and kill him as a heretic."

The acolyte nodded, "It will be done my lord."

Leo couldn't help the grin on his face as he spotted an inquisitor heatedly arguing with a street merchant over prices. Apparently if you killed enough of the damn things the rest got mighty twitchy. He stepped out of the shadows after the inquisitor hit the merchant. "You have no honor knave, I challenge you to a duel."

The inquisitor glared, "Duel? I think not, I shall just call for the rest of my squad and bring you in in chains."

Leo sighed theatrically, "Well enough, call your friends but you do understand that the penalty for them interfering in a duel is death, yes?" He couldn't help but smirk as the guy drew his blade. He lost a bit of his smirk when he noticed the approaching group of inquisitors. "I guess I'll have to make this quick."

Laura smiled as she jumped down off the roof of one of the buildings to land in the path of the approaching group. "Don't you know it's not polite to interfere in a duel of honor?"

The largest guy in the front of the group glared at her, "Kill her."

Laura grinned, "Hey, you can't say I didn't try to be nice."

Leo chuckled as he blocked a swipe of his opponent's sword, "By the law of the land and my power as a knight, for their attempts to ruin a duel of honor their lives are forfeit!" He heard a few gasps from the crowded street before the people decided to give the duelists some space.

Laura grinned, "Just what I was waiting for." With a small snap of inrushing air she vanished only to reappear behind the group but still close enough to land a full round house kick to the rear man's head. She was already striking the next guy on the base of the neck before the rest of the group turned to find out what the noise was. She grinned happily as she jumped over the man with a broken spine and started tearing into the rest with hands and feet.

Leo grinned as one of the men frantically pulled out a whistle and blew it. The man with the whistle only had about three seconds to realize it wasn't doing anything before his neck was crushed by Laura's side kick. Leo smirked, "You were expecting us to fall down in pain? Sadly for you that only works on the fey. Now you're going to die, a most painful death, but before that, I have a message for your bosses." He disarmed the inquisitor with a flick of his blade, "You tortured my sister just because she's a witch. For that, if for nothing else you will all die. We will drive you and your fucking god from the British isles. Go now and tell your boss that you have two hours to be gone from the city before we kill every last one of you."

The man didn't even have the chance to sneer before the man vanished into thin air along with his demon girl. He couldn't help the nervous twitching that ran down his spine as he looked at the bloody remains of the squad of inquisitors torn apart in the street. Being that in less than a minute six of his friends were dead with nothing to show for it, he did the only thing he could think to do which was run back to report.

Alfred grinned as he shut the keep's gates as he noticed a group of inquisitors approaching the keep, he had finally gotten the orders he believed should have come months ago. "I'm afraid you lack an appointment, thus you will not be seeing his majesty any time soon, in fact as his majesty is currently celebrating the recovery of his oldest he will be indisposed for the next while."

Fernando glared at the keep's guard, "You know who I am?"

Alfred couldn't help but smirk, "Of course, you're the dead man walking that the Lord Wizard asked to have removed from the country."

"Preposterous, there hasn't been a Lord Wizard in years, not since the last one was burned for being a heretic."

"Yes well, apparently the fact that the man saved the king's son from the malady he was suffering from was enough to reinstate an old position. It's about damn time to."

"Your king just signed his death warrant. Once the Pope hears about this your king will be excommunicated and we will recommend that all of his lords don't honor their oaths."

Alfred shrugged, "My king is willing to take the risk to see his people safe from the likes of you. Though if I were you I wouldn't be wasting the time I had to get out of the city." He sighed as he watched the group leave, he was happy to see them go but somehow he didn't think they were just going to go quietly.

Early last night:

Leo didn't bother with the doors to the royal chambers he merely apparated inside, he glared at the royal couple even as he pointed his wand and used a stunning charm on the two guards inside the room "I've come to negotiate blood price," He gestured at the couple with his wand as it looked like they were going to object to his presence loudly, "Silencio." His smile didn't touch his cold eyes as he glared at the couple, "You have allowed an abomination in the form of inquisitors into your country, they tortured my sister, you should be eternally happy she isn't dead or permanently damaged." He gestured and flicked his wrist to toss the king back onto the bed when it looked like he was going to physically protest. "I am hoping to deal with this nicely and neatly before my other sister makes a blood bath of your country in her hunt for the people that hurt Rose, you really don't want that to happen. So what is going to happen is you're going to sign a document that says if we heal your son you will banish the church from the isles. If you don't then I can make no promises on what happens when my sister rips your land apart. She's much more powerful and much more vindictive than I am, luckily for you she's also busy right now which gives me the chance to deal with things in a nice manor, so sign the damn document or we'll rip your country apart."

Xander glanced over at Helen, "I still can't believe Leo got the king to sign the document."

She grinned, "He can be sort of scary when he needs to be. Takes after you a bit in that."

He rolled his eyes, "So how much time do we have before it's open season on the inquisitors?"

Helen chuckled, "About two minutes, you sure you don't have any issues with shooting them, they are more or less human."

He shrugged, "Officially they signed blood packs with whatever the hell demon is pretending to be their god. Even if some of the lower ranks didn't they are no better then demons that choose to kill people. So no I'm not going to lose any sleep over it."

Helen nodded, it was actually one of the reasons she liked Xander, he judged people on an individual base." She glanced at her watch, "Times up."

"Shall we see if we can get more than Morrigan?"

Helen shrugged, "I don't feel that lucky today. She's more than a little unhinged about this whole torture thing, she's taking it real personal like."

Xander nodded, "Hopefully she can work some of her frustration out."

The next several weeks were a continuous nightmare for the inquisition members as they fled Britain, weeks filled with fear, weeks of almost no sleep either because of the howling of eerie hounds outside the camps prevented restful slumber or perhaps worse was when the hounds didn't howl, for in those mornings often times they would find a church member dead in their bed with a knife to the chest with a note stuck to them with the same message, "For your sins." It was always signed "The Morrigan." The various people couldn't help but look at everyone in suspicion as new camps formed out of the vestiges of other groups that had been reduced in number. As the King's messengers had traveled around the realm spreading tales, it hadn't taken long before most of the priests of the land had decided they were next and packed up as well. Of course with the weight of the gold they were trying to smuggle out of the country it took them a while to make their way toward the edges of the land.

Morrigan smiled as she patted the spectral hounds Lenora had conjured, they were really good about scaring the piss out of the inquisitors. She wondered about the ethics of turning the priests she caught into pokegirls but figured it was still a kinder fate than her sword, that fate was reserved for the inquisitors. Not that there were that many left, at least of the top ranks. She had found that while the spectral hounds set off the inquisitors magic detectors when you did it enough they stopped paying as much attention to the things as they should. She couldn't help the smile on her face as she ghosted into the last camp of inquisitors. She was supposed to leave a couple of witnesses alive but she figured a few young priests would work better than inquisitors.

Ernest couldn't help but lose his stomach as he looked around the destroyed camp. He had woken to a horrid stench, some part of his mind had recognized the smell of flesh burning but hadn't wanted to acknowledge it. It took him a few seconds to realize that the twenty people impaled on pikes around a bonfire were still twitching feebly even as the fire burned their flesh from their bodies. He was almost to the closest of them when a voice stopped him, "They're already dead, you can't help them."

He couldn't help but gasp as he traced the voice to a blood stained girl with blood dripping from her red hair, "What?"

"I mean they were dead and I pulled their souls back into their corpses so they could feel the fire eat away their flesh. After that I'll take their skulls and cast them into the deepest hell I can find for all of time. They will forever suffer as the fire continues to burn their souls, I'm sure they will be insane within a short time but I really don't care."

"Why?"

The bloody girl shrugged indifferently, "I could give you the list of their sins, but as it's a very long list I care little about I'll give you the simple truth, I burned them to ash because they hurt one of mine, as simple as that. Next time, I'll destroy your whole damn religion."

Ernest blinked as the girl vanished with a blast of fire.

Morrigan couldn't help her scowl as she fed another pokeball into the machine to be mind wiped. No matter how much she disliked the priests the very idea that a machine could just wipe your whole life from you was scary. Still now that Gabrielle had mostly perfected her spell to turn people into pokegirls the priests were being turned into elves, elves she would use to work the land. There was a twisted sense of irony to having people that did little for work having to actually work for a living. Only annoying part was that Gabrielle still needed a source sample or samples in the case of her g-splice experiments. Though those hadn't gone quite so well, so really it was just as well that she had been perfecting it on people no one cared for.

Leo sighed as he looked at the paperwork on the desk, he had thought it would be a good thing getting a title but apparently that title came with a mess of paperwork that hadn't been touched in years. Adding to his frustration was that the translation ring did little to help translate the bad penmanship on some of the reports. He grumbled as he pulled his magic phone out and dialed Rose's number, "How's my favorite sister doing?"

Rose looked at the phone for a second before putting it back against her ear, "What do you need?"

"I'm trying to sort a bunch of paperwork, can I please borrow Taika? G-points are sort of like secretaries right?"

"If you want to loan me Tiffany for guard duty then sure."

"I'll send Tiffany over, I think the dust is getting to her anyways."

"Thanks."

Tiffany sniffled and rubbed her already red nose, "Sorry it's just not all that much fun when you can smell the tiniest amounts of mold and dust and such things."

"Sorry, I'll work on cleaning a bit more as soon as Taika gets here."

Ivy giggled as she snuggled up against Wendy. It felt nice to be back on earth in a warm bed and have the day to just lounge around. It was nice that they trusted her to use her telepathy on the Jaffa they recruited but it was hard work scanning people all day. Still it was important work, why just yesterday they had caught a Tok'ra pretending to be a Jaffa. That had been interesting, though ultimately of little use. She giggled as she remembered how Jack had ordered him locked up until such a time as they could deal with him.

Wendy grinned as she tussled Ivy's hair, "You know you'll have to get out of bed at some point right?"

"Yeah but I was sort of hoping to be able to relax for a day, honestly these last couple of weeks have been hard."

"Just be happy you're not over in England rooting out church members like Helen has to."

"How come we can't have more psychics?"

"Well Abby is working on her abilities but she doesn't like hurting people so she's less picky than she should be. It would be nice to have a couple of more but we didn't take any more from your home world and I don't trust strangers here enough to turn them into a psychic type. You could always try to get Kyara to finally evolve into a Psivyx. She'd have some psychic abilities then and could help you out."

"Yeah but she might be less likely to help me out with my pranking. So how do you think Morrigan is going to deal with the elf types?"

Wendy stretched and yawned, "I think she's planning on breeding more once Gabrielle and Lexie can work out how to keep them from going feral without having to have sex."

Ivy nodded, "You ever consider asking one of the humans for sex?"

Wendy chuckled, "While I wouldn't turn sex with one of the family down at a party or something I'm fairly happy with Morrigan and Becky."

"What about Sabrina?"

"Nah, she steals the covers." Wendy chuckled, "So yes while the sex is nice her stealing the covers is a bad thing."

"So is it true what they say about enchantresses being sex fiends?"

Wendy chuckled as she reached over and kissed the nine year old trixie on the forehead before crawling out of bed, "That's for me to know." She stuck her tongue out at Ivy before continuing to the shower. Indoor plumbing, she hadn't realized how badly she had missed it until she didn't have it. It had taken a couple of weeks for the robots to build the main complex mostly because there were only a handful of robots working on it, there were a couple handfuls working on finishing the shipyards but the vast majority of them were spread out over the border of the area they were claiming. She just hoped the bots would have the walls built by the time they needed them.

Willow glanced down at her notes to keep herself from looking at the faces of the gathered watchers and assorted guests from the SGC on Jack's home world, she wished she knew how Giles had roped her and Jack into giving the speech he should have been doing, "So according to the images we took from space and at various other heights and after careful comparison of maps we are standing on what would be the border between Wilkeson and Spiketon Hill." At the number of blank looks she continued, "Pierce county, in the state of Washington, ah America?" She sighed mentally at least the America part of that was getting through to several of the watchers, "Not that it matters and not that you care. You're only really concerned about your various fields which is why we've asked you here." She glanced as a young man from the SGC delegation raised his hand, "Yes?"

"Ah, I was told we would have transportation," He gestured around, "And despite the rather nice barracks I'm not seeing much in the way of transportation."

Willow sighed, "Until we can get the shipyards up and running at full capacity we are limited by the amount of access you'll have to non native transportation."

One of the watcher's piped up with, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Jack grinned from where he was standing, "It means, shut up, sit down and pay attention. It means that we'll be splitting you all up into teams then dropping you off at a location and expecting you to look after yourself for a while. Each of you volunteered for this for various reasons." He glanced at the guy that had been asking the questions, "I believe you were interested in some of the native languages, interested enough to take some time off to do a bit of surveying. Several of you are interested in artifacts that were lost or destroyed in one of our worlds. We have limited resources at present and very little time to do some of the projects. If things hold true to form then we should have a few years before Europe truly understands what is on this side of the world."

Willow grinned as she saw the people looking restless, "That being said we are going to try to get everyone where they need to be in an orderly fashion. It's just going to take some time."

Giles couldn't help but smile as he walked under the Fyndon Gate of St Augustine's Abbey, it had taken him quite a bit of fast talking before the head priest had opened the gate, still it was fascinating to see the site intact. It had taken a bit of work to convince the girls that the place was worth saving, he had had to clean his glasses and go into a long lecture about the historical significance of the place before they had agreed that it might be useful to keep around, still he was determined to try, which was how he found himself sitting in a chair in the abbot's office explaining to the abbot the reality of the situation. Which was that by decree of the king all religious organizations were to be disbanded and have their assets taken.

Gabrielle couldn't help but feel like she should reconsider her agreement to not destroy the damned place. Apparently girls weren't allowed inside the church proper, nor apparently were they allowed access to the scrolls or archives. Which left her taking a stupid tour of the gardens from a disinterested priest. Giles so owed her for this, the only reason she wasn't laying waste to the place was it was the only abbey they had visited in the last several weeks that hadn't felt tainted. She really wanted to know why or more precisely how they had avoided that fate. Add to that the feeling of watchfulness she had felt since she first got to the abbey's grounds and she was a mite bit suspicious. After finally telling the priest that she wished a quiet minute in prayer she settled herself in the garden. She had barely finished arranging her skirts when she noticed a middle aged ghost in priest robes walk through the hedge. "Didn't know priest's turned into ghosts."

Thomas smiled, "Only the non-believers."

"If that were true I think we would have an abbey filled with them."

He smiled, "So young to be such a cynic. You are correct though, you need a bit of magic and a willingness to stay behind to turn into a ghost."

Gabrielle found herself chuckling, "Priests wouldn't be so bad if they had your sense of humor."

"Such is life, or near enough. Have you come to destroy the abbey?"

"Why would you think that?"

"I might have spent some time listening at the abbot's door."

Gabrielle sighed, "I find myself at a loss, I have no wish to destroy the history nor the knowledge and yet I find myself unwilling to allow a bastion of Christianity to flourish."

Thomas chuckled, "I can see where that might be an issue. You could always offer to buy the place from the monks, I'm sure that they would be willing to sell."

"You seem to have a low opinion of your fellow monks."

"Not really just the leadership, the current abbot succeeded the abbot that poisoned my food, apparently I wasn't dying soon enough for him."

"I'm guessing he didn't know you were a wizard?"

Thomas chuckled as he glanced around, "We are in an abbey, it wasn't really something I shouted around."

"I don't suppose you know any monks that are worth keeping around?"

The ghost smiled, "I might know a few."

"I don't suppose they might have some magic in them?"

Thomas smiled, "Now that's a nasty thing to say about good hard working monks."

Gabrielle chuckled, "So how much do we offer the abbot? I've got a bit of tainted gold I wouldn't mind disposing of."

"Tainted gold?"

"You didn't think the inquisitors weren't making a profit off who they accused did you?"

Giles was only sort of amused to see the back of the annoying abbot. The man had sold out his monastery without a second thought. It was sort of disturbing really how easily they had acquired the property. He really hoped he could convince Gabrielle not to tell Xander that a thousand years of history had been sold for a bit of enchanted fool's gold. Still despite the slightly underhanded way they had acquired the place, it would make a fairly decent place to house some of their staff as the watcher's combed the country looking for knowledge. He glanced over at Gabrielle, "Not a word to Xander, not a word."

She chuckled, "You're just afraid that he'll tease you about a lack of British loyalty to history on the part of it's people."

Giles sputtered, "That man was Italian, there is no way a British citizen would do that."

"Keep telling yourself that. Now that we own the place I want to see what magic books Thomas was hiding in the archives."

Giles grinned, "You know you're very like your mother sometimes."

Gabrielle chuckled as she walked toward the library.

Leo smiled as he glanced at the cleared desk, it had only taken the better part of several weeks and the skills of a research girl to organize stuff but he had finally gotten caught up. Which as far as he was concerned was just as well. He couldn't help but rest his feet up on the desk, a move he knew would have Giles glaring at him.

Arthur smirked as he walked into the Lord Wizard's office, "Sitting down on the job?"

Leo grinned, his friendship with the prince was a bit odd considering how they met. What with Leo offering a cure on the condition that the prince forfeit his firstborn to an arranged marriage. He still wasn't quite sure when the prince had moved from a way to get a hold of the royal line into the friend category. Perhaps it was the fact that the man liked fighting almost as much as he did. "Well I finished sorting everything and figured I would take a break. Maybe try to figure out how to keep the church out of the country as well as convince the people with magic that following some simple rules as to it's use would be beneficial to all."

Arthur grinned, "You ever thought of changing your name to Merlin?" He chuckled at the look of disgust on Leo's face, "All joking aside I hope you have some ideas for what to do when Rome raises an army."

Leo nodded, "I have several, some of them might even work. Still it will be several more weeks before news spreads to Rome and then several more for a carrier to arrive and then several more before they are expected back. Though with the winter approaching I doubt we will see much in the way of troops before the spring."

Arthur nodded, "Hopefully, I'm sort of hoping to see my bride before all of the fuss starts."

Leo shook his head, "I still can't believe you're married to a girl you've never met."

Arthur glanced at Leo strangely, "Some times I wonder where you are from, you seem to have an understanding of strange things yet often it's the simple things that confuse you. It is the duty of the king to provide a heir so that the line can continue, rarely do we get to marry for love. Though I'm hopeful Katherine and I will do well together, she seems well read, at least if her writing is any indication. So when are you getting married?"

Leo chuckled, "While it would be a tempting thing to try to cause a priest's head to explode by asking to marry all of my girls at once, as marrying them all is most likely impossible here, I prefer to live happily with all of my girls without picking a favorite. Besides having no wife but having several beautiful if slightly more than human girls goes better with the Lord Wizard title than having one boring human wife that simpers and knits."

Author chuckled, "I should probably head to the practice ring, I hear it's a good way to impress the ladies."

"I thought that's why you practiced archery?"

Arthur laughed, "No, that I do because I like having meat with my dinner."

Leo chuckled, "Good luck with that, maybe I'll join you. It would be interesting to see how a proper knight fights."

Xander smiled as he exited the transport ship with Gabrielle and Giles, "Ah, home sweet home."

Gabrielle chuckled, "You just don't like the fact that the British haven't learned that washing more than once a year is a good thing."

Giles muttered darkly but even he couldn't deny the accusation.

Xander's eyes narrowed, "Wait a minute, you have enhanced senses how come it didn't bother you?"

She grinned, "Fresh air spell, perfect for dealing with the English and for dealing with small children or dung bombs."

"Why you ungrateful whelp, leaving your poor uncle Xander to suffer."

Gabrielle snickered, "Next time I'll enchant something with the spell so you don't have to smell the British."

Giles sighed, "Now I think I'm offended."

"I'll make one for you as well."

"Thank you. Dreadful stench really."

Gabrielle glanced around, "I should probably go see how things are going on the alien front."

Willow glanced up as Gabrielle walked in, "How's things going?"

"I was just about to ask you the same. We managed to hunt down a fair number of the inquisitors that hurt Rose and chased the rest from the country. Giles bought St Augustine's Abbey, I think he plans to have a second group of watcher's here studying this world's magic. He was muttering things about never having all of our eggs in one basket again on the trip back. Sort of annoying really, I think it was just to distract himself from the fact that Xander was piloting the Al'kesh. Leo got himself a job and seems to have made some friends in England, other than that there isn't much to report."

"It would have been nice to have known about the Inquisitors before you took care of them, Dawn was particularly annoyed over the whole thing. We had to talk her out of dropping a bomb on the Vatican."

Gabrielle frowned, "How did you manage that?"

"It was actually Buffy, which is a bit disturbing now that I think about it, maybe spending years around Adam wasn't good for her, but she mentioned that if the place was nuked then she couldn't cut their hearts out one by one. Sort of creepy now that I think about it. Still considering what they did to her niece not all that surprising. Anyways things are progressing, albeit slowly."

"So what did you do with the elves we sent?"

"The first group of elves was sent south with a robot to set up some orange farms. We send some more elves with sugar beats into what would be Oregon. The rest we are scattering around here."

"Lexie have any luck figuring out a way to keep them from going feral?

Willow sighed, "We have good and bad news there."

"Hit me with the bad news first."

"Short of turning them into something else with magic we only figured out a process that decreases their libido. We can also fashion a magical item that further decreases it, we are still trying to work out the kinks in that as the prototype seems to increase their desire for sex even as it decreases the need for it. Not exactly a win, win there."

"And the good news?

"We're fairly sure we can remove the whole ferality problem in the girl's children by tinkering with a fertility spell. So while the first generation can't be fixed short of changing them into something else we should be able to fix their descendants, which gives me some hope that we aren't going to destroy this world by bringing pokegirls into it."

Gabrielle grinned, "That's great, though not exactly helpful to the girls."

Willow nodded, "Lexie will keep at it, but it seems fairly hard coded into their DNA. She suspects magic was used to make sure they go feral."

"No luck with the Ebony stones?"

"Oh the things would change pokegirls into S-Goths and clear up feral that way but they would lose any enhancements they had, not exactly something the girls would be happy about."

Gabrielle nodded, "Well thanks. So how's the stargate teams going?"

"Not bad at all, Jack managed to sucker the Tollan into sharing some of their tech, Lexie is having a blast working her way through the specs on the stuff. It's keeping her team busy as well."

"Wait does that mean that I'm not going to get my own ship any time soon?"

"Sadly it doesn't look like it, the bots are busy building the generic transport ships Lexie and crew came up with, Lexie wants her team to look over the Tollan stuff a bit first to see if anything in it will help with the ship design before she starts on the royal ships as she has started to call them. She's got her best robots working on it as well. Don't worry, you'll have a top of the line ship at some point. Probably within a year or two."

Gabrielle sighed, "I guess that gives me enough time to start working on figuring out how to train some pilots. Oh and look over the notes on the pregnancy spells."

Willow grinned, "Thinking about starting a family?"

"Well the girls would sort of like some little ones and I'm hoping I can figure out how to make sure my children or descendants never have to worry about going feral."

Willow grinned, "I'm glad you're putting a bit of thought to things."

Gabrielle grinned, "Plus well I wouldn't mind seeing if the pregnancy spells work on Lexie or maybe Talsanra. It would be nice to have another sister."

Willow shook her head, "You better not cast that spell without the participants express written permission."

Gabrielle sighed, "Alright I promise no using the spell on family without their permission. So can I see the notes?"

Willow chuckled, "Sure Hermione has them."

Gabrielle grinned as she ran out the door.

Willow watched her daughter run off, "Should probably get the robots to add a nursery before too long."

Patrick frowned, "Just don't make the tattoo of something girly."

Rain looked down her nose at Patrick , "Hey now, your other tattoos came out just fine."

"Yeah but that was before I won at poker."

"Oh don't worry if I do something girlish like ink a flower on you it will be two four leaf clovers with a naked girl waving them."

"That's not a bad idea, a bit of luck never hurt anyone."

Rain chuckled, "You have way too much luck as it is. So being that you already have Celtic symbols for strength down your arms and ones for speed on your legs what would you like this time?"

"I wouldn't mind being able to play with fire a bit."

"Oh, I can do that." Rain looked him over, "Well let's see how about your back? I'm picturing a naked girl dancing around a bonfire during a thunderstorm."

Patrick grinned, "I leave myself in your hands."

Jason chuckled as he approached the outdoor bench where they had set up, "Just be careful with that flirting, Lily might get the wrong idea and it's never good to piss off the doctor."

Rain chuckled, "I suppose you want something as well?"

Jason shrugged, "I'm happy with my strength and speed enhancement ones. Though if you can think of anything else I might have to go for it."

Rain shrugged, "I'm still working on a regeneration tattoo, so far though it's been less than a complete success."

Jason raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

"Yeah they keep generating extra body parts, sort of frustrating really."

Jason twitched, "Ugh, you're joking right?"

Rain grinned as she went back to inking Patrick's tattoo.

Jack glanced away from where Rain was working on Patrick and over at Amanda, they were a bit too away to overhear casual conversation but easily hearable if they talked loudly, "So you going to go for another tattoo as well?"

She shrugged, "I'm still trying to get used to being stronger than a body builder. Not to mention faster than an Olympic runner. I might try to talk her into giving me an endurance tattoo though."

Jack grinned, it had taken a bit of convincing but he had finally accepted the two basic tattoos Rain was offering to all of the knights. After practicing with them he was considering making them mandatory for his knights. Or maybe not mandatory but seriously recommended. He couldn't help but wonder what the other Jack O'Neill would think. Probably that he wasn't looking at the long term effects the tattoos would have. Hell he had, all the research pointed at them being safe provided the person took it easy during the adjustment period. Which if you considered that your strength more than doubled and you suddenly got a lot faster it made a lot of sense that you could hurt yourself if you weren't careful as you learned your new limits. "I might see about an endurance tattoo as well, provided it can go someplace out of the way."

"Are you sad you're not with the SGC still?"

"I think the fact that we don't have to answer to some government oversight committee makes up for a lot, still there were a couple people that were nice to see now and then."

"That's what vacation time is for."

"What and cut into my fishing?"

She chuckled, "Well you could always drag them through the gate and take them fishing here."

Jack couldn't help a chuckle as he thought about the reaction of the other Jack to an offer of fishing. Hell he might just go for it. It would be interesting enough, and besides the time apart had helped to separate their lives enough that they could probably stand to be in the same room as each other. "Next time we contact the SGC I'll invite them."

Amanda chuckled, "Tell them to bring steak, and beer. I haven't had a decent beer since I signed up."

"Will do."


	32. Azeroth side trip

Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the various Buffy characters nor any of the other various characters I've borrowed from various places. I will also for the record state that I don't own World of Warcraft nor it's products or characters. They are owned by Blizzard entertainment or some version of said company.

Hermione glanced around the strange city she found herself in. Dawn's portal had somehow been redirected to the spot they had landed at rather than close to the slayer like they would have liked. They had stepped out of the portal only to find themselves in a large circular room with stained glass windows, after having watched a strange minotaur like guy dressed in expensive looking leathers appear from thin air in the room before calmly walking out into the courtyard like it was no big deal being dropped off by portal, they had decided that maybe they should follow suit rather than chance one of the portals opening on them. She glanced at her traveling companion. "So what should we do first?"

Sabrina shrugged, "Don't know, you and Willow are the ones that normally do this sort of thing, I'm just along for the ride." She frowned, "Well what about maybe finding out where we are." She quickly stepped out of the way as another portal spat a rather large orc like creature dressed in plate out of the portal. "I like that getting out of here idea, this place appears to be a localized nexus of portals or at least a destination point of some type." She watched the orc like man wander off a bit before taking out a set of strange looking reins and summoning a small mammoth complete with saddle. She watched as he rode off into town. "Does that freak you out as much as it does me?"

Hermione nodded, "Oh yeah, maybe we should hit the inn and see what's going on?

"What makes you think this place has an inn?" She looked around at all of the strangely dressed creatures running all over the place. Besides the orc man that had jumped on the mammoth there were several elf looking people running around the streets on giant cats, not to mention a couple of large strange blue skinned wild men with ugly ass nose piercings riding around on large lizards of all things, the pedestrians hardly seemed bothered by the chaos. She glanced around and noticed a human dressed in robes standing by a water fountain, "Ah I don't suppose you know where the tavern is?"

Adorean Lew looked up at the young lady asking him directions, "Ah yeah through the passage there," He pointed to one of the archways in the main square, "then hang a left, it's the Legerdemain Lounge you can't miss it. Anything else?"

"Ah I couldn't help but notice the portals that everyone arrived in."

He frowned, "You're fresh out of school aren't you? Maybe you should go back to Elwynn forest and beat up some wolves or something. This is Dalaran city of mages, a place for epic heroes, not a place for children."

Hermione shrugged, "Ah, we're mages, we just haven't been here before."

He blinked as he looked at the elf closely, "We don't see many of your kind here, though I expect that to change rather soon. My apologies for assuming you were some idiot priest and druid pair with half a brain between you. I'll pass the word that you're mages and put in a good word to start you on your way with the folk here that matter. Make sure you stop by the mage trainer and learn how to open a portal here." He gestured toward a side entrance in the building they had just come out of. "It beats paying the insane price the flight masters want to get back here. You might want to talk to the riding master at Krasus's Landing if you haven't gotten the latest enchantment cast on your flying mounts to keep the cold off their wings yet."

Hermione just nodded, she'd gotten rather used to letting others assume that she knew what the hell they were talking about when she went looking for the potential slayers. She smiled, "Thanks for the help." She frowned as she could swear he said, 'newbie' under his breath, maybe her translation ring was acting up.

Sabrina frowned as they made their way to the local tavern, there were several people of various races standing around on the street corners screaming about what they had to sell, she caught the tail end of one guy's claim to be a powerful enchanter and another's claim to be able to make the latest in leather armor and armor kits.

Hermione shrugged after several seconds, "I'm guessing this is a world that's familiar with magic or at least this part of the world is. We should be careful, perhaps hang out in the tavern and get an idea what's going on."

Sabrina nodded, "There is a lot of magic floating around, enough that it's making me jittery."

Hermione nodded, "It feels a bit like Hogwarts but I don't want to assume the place is safe. Let's just keep to ourselves and see what happens." She ducked into the tavern narrowly avoiding a small humanoid figure that came bumbling out. He was short enough to be a child but the fact that he had a beard and wasn't built like a child sort of tossed that identification out the window.

Sabrina shrugged as she side stepped the small man, while he didn't seem overly dangerous there were some strange sounds coming from several of his bags. Sounds that made her think of a mad scientist's lab, well that or Lexie's but that amounted to the same thing. She couldn't help but smile as she looked around the room. There were a number of strange looking 'people' sitting at the various tables. Nothing too strange but still not as human as she had expected. Against one of the walls was the typical bar where the barkeep was busily working away. On the other side she noticed several bookshelves and a set of stone steps that presumably lead to the rooms for rent. She wandered over to a seat by one of the bookshelves to check out one of the books while Hermione went to talk to the innkeeper.

Hermione felt somewhat cheated by the high price of the food as she carried her tray over to sit with Sabrina, they would have to find some type of employment or something if they had to stay here that long, if for no other reason than to afford the price of the food. She frowned as she looked around at the number of adventurers. She wasn't really sure how she was going to find her slayer but one thing was for sure, she was going to have to get caught up fast. She grinned as she used her slayer hearing to eavesdrop on the various conversations around the room.

Misty Shadows glanced over at the two strange people sitting at the next table. She was fairly sure that they were mages, but that would mean that the elf girl was a mage, and unless she missed her guess not one of the mages that was part of the Kirin Tor, not something you saw every day. Still she guessed it was possible that the girl was a priest but that didn't feel right, no she was fairly sure that the girl was a mage, either that or a warlock but if the idea of an elven mage was weird, the idea of an elven warlock was even stranger. Besides the girl just didn't seem to have the disposition of a warlock, not that she had any right to judge as she was a fairly happy warlock. She personally found the idea of magic fascinating, well according to her friends a bit too fascinating, but regardless she was a bit surprised to see one wandering around in the open. She decided to introduce herself, it never hurt to have too many friends, she walked over and jumped up onto a chair at their table so she could see over the edge of the table. "Hi."

Hermione blinked as a green haired gnome girl jumped up onto the empty chair at their table, "Ah hello."

Misty grinned, "You looked lost, thought I would come over and see if I could help you out."

Hermione smiled at the enthusiastic girl, she reminded her a little bit of Lenora with the way her pigtails bounced around when she was excited about a topic. "We're new in the city and not exactly sure what we're supposed to be doing now that we're here."

"Well whatever you want I guess, we're always looking for mages though I'm sure there will be a number of night elves that look at you strangely being that you're a mage, but I'm sure you're familiar with that. I suggest visiting the landing pad and seeing about getting your mount enchanted then perhaps flying around Northrend, be careful of the horde cities their flying bats are rather nasty…" She frowned and dropped her voice, "You've no idea what I'm talking about do you? Just how far away are you from?"

Hermione blinked at the topic change and lowered her voice further, "Fairly far?"

"We probably shouldn't discuss this here but I'm feeling generous so come up to my room and I'll explain the ins and outs of Azeroth."

Hermione frowned, she wasn't sure she could trust the girl but well it was one way to get information on the new world. "What's your price?"

Misty grinned, "Well I've got this friend that does a lot of work with leather, she's been bugging me to get her some rare and valuable skins to make some new clothes for a druid friend of ours. Anyways I'd like to range a bit further from the city than I feel comfortable doing on my own, if I help you out maybe you can help me out."

Hermione shrugged, "Worth a shot."

Sabrina glanced around the inn room of their new acquaintance, it had a few articles of clothing laying around but wasn't overly messy, "So how about some background on the world."

Misty grinned, she hadn't expected to find people from another world when she went into the inn but sometimes the things you least expected were the most interesting. "I should probably start with some background, the burning legion?" She frowned as the other two showed no reaction, no one was that good of an actor, "Oh dear, well bunch of undead and evil spell casters. They make us warlocks look like a happy saintly bunch. We're sort of at war with them and this is why."

Hermione couldn't help but be amazed at some of the things the girl in front of her had done, raided old keeps braved dangers untold to explore forgotten lands in a quest for knowledge and magical items to help her explore ever more dangerous places. "That's fascinating, I would have loved to do half those things, but I don't know if I could have pulled it off as well as you did. Not to mention I don't have anything in the way of magical gear like everyone here seems to."

Mist frowned, "Nothing? How do you expect to do much against the monsters of the land?"

Hermione shrugged, "Well I have my magic."

Mist frowned, "That just wont do, tell you what we'll hit the forest and you can help me skin the monsters and I'll get you set up with some old gear, I've a mage friend that has a bunch of crap from her trials in the Outlands that she doesn't use any more. It's not the best of the best but it should be enough to get you started."

Sabrina shrugged, it wasn't like she had much of a choice besides it would be interesting to see what this world's magical items were like. Not to mention they really didn't have a good idea where to find the girl they were looking for."

Gabrielle grinned as she ran through the preflight tests on the transport ship she was piloting, well okay copiloting but she wasn't picky. She smiled as she glanced over at John and Sarah, "So how did I do?"

John glanced at Sarah, "Well how did she do Sarah?"

Sarah grinned, it was a bit strange instructing her human but she was working on her instructor's qualification while Gabrielle was working on her flight qualifications for the new ship, which left her more qualified than Gabrielle. As the most qualified pilot they had it had fallen to John O'Neill to set the standards for piloting. They all knew that Gabrielle could fly as she had gotten a lot of practice with the Goa'uld Al'kesh but going through the check list helped them both get it straight in their heads. "All systems go."

Gabrielle grinned as she went through the after flight check off list as well. While nothing more than hitting the shut down command was required in an emergency, when it wasn't you were supposed to shut the ship down properly. "Can I go boss?"

Sarah nodded, "Yeah, I'll tell your mother you're all checked out and not to worry so much."

"Yeah well, I blame uncle Xander for squealing about that one flight."

Jack shook his head, "Actually it was that one annoying anthropologist, that you shook up on landing, that complained."

"Not my fault he was such a baby about things, he said he wanted to get there fast."

Jack chuckled then looked at Sarah, "You think if I scared the hell out of a few science geeks they would let me stop with the transport duties?"

Sarah shrugged, "Nah they know you to well."

Jack sighed, "Damn."

Gabrielle shrugged, "Well if you don't need my lovely girl here I'm going to kidnap her and do naughty things to her."

Jack chuckled, "Yeah go have fun. Just have her back here in the morning so she can do the training for the rest of the pilots."

Gabrielle nodded, "Fine, fine."

Jack watched the two depart with amusement, he was fairly happy that several of the people could actually fly, give them a few years and they would be competent pilots. Now if he could just convince the people in charge that they needed more than a bare handful of pilots he would be much happier.

Gabrielle grinned as she glanced at where Sarah was changing out of her instructor's jumpsuit, "So how does it feel to be in charge?"

"Odd and a bit different but sort of fun at the same time. Then I remember that I'm responsible for making sure the pilots can actually fly rather than kill themselves racing Lexie's new craft around like computer junkies and I get that knot in the pit of my stomach for a minute before I realize that by the time they're done training I'll have burned that impulse out of their skulls. I think the hardest thing to deal with is the way they look at me like a kid."

Gabrielle grinned as she eyed her friend's body the same body that despite the six years they'd know each other hadn't changed a bit from the young teenaged form it had taken since her threshold. "Ah but you are a cute kid."

Sarah sighed, "You know as well as I do that I'm an adult even if I don't look like one, I just wish the rest of the people could actually get it through their thick skulls that I'm not a kid."

"If they don't behave get Morrigan to glare at them, that would straighten out anyone. Besides if they ever saw you in those silk undies they wouldn't be thinking kid."

"I'll keep that in mind." She slipped out of the sheer blue underwear before tossing them at Gabrielle, "Enjoy, I'm hitting the showers."

Gabrielle reached up and caught the underwear, "Can I ask you a serious question?"

Sarah stopped at the edge of the doorway, "Sure what's on your mind?"

"Are you happy?"

Sarah frowned, "What brought that on?"

"Well I just worry sometimes that I forget to ask your honest opinion, I've been so focused on helping set up a country and organizing and helping out Giles I sometimes forget that we're supposed to be teenagers for a bit longer."

Sarah chuckled, "The flight training is a nice distraction, I still have plenty of time to myself and taking care of the others isn't too bad. Though I think Melody could use some attention, she's sad that Leo's girls are off in England and have been for a while. I know he's busy trying to figure out a way to get the British Isles under control but that doesn't mean we can't visit him and his girls."

"You just want to have sex with Tiffany."

"Damn straight I miss her carrots, yummy tasty goodness."

Gabrielle brought the underwear to her nose, "Yep, you like flying way to much."

Sarah chuckled as she wiggled her ass at her human before heading off to the showers. She turned the water on and drifted a bit as she waited for it to get warm. She couldn't help it, she thought about her friend's question, was she happy, she wasn't really sure, sure she had the flight training to keep her busy and the girls to keep her entertained but there was a part of her that missed the fighting. Maybe she needed to do something about setting up some sparing practice, or something. Then again maybe she just needed to curl up with her human and read a book and relax for a change, not that she thought they would get much reading done but it was worth a shot.

Lexie plastered a smile on her face as she knocked on the door of one of the countryside orphanages. She didn't really like being here, the place had a horrible reputation, which was exactly why she was here. They had more or less perfected the means by which to change people into Pokegirls or enhanced humans as they liked to call the new generation as they had worked some of the design flaws out of the girls. The problem was that they needed people to use the magic on, at least for the first generation. Thus it had been decided to see about acquiring a supply of smart intelligent children from the various nations in the world. Sadly unless they wanted to kidnap a bunch of kids then that left acquiring them from orphanages and other places less savory. She glanced at Neville, "I just wish I could save them all."

He nodded, he knew that growing up in an orphanage had left her a bit jaded no matter how much nicer hers had been then the one they were standing in front of. He also knew that they couldn't take every kid, they just didn't have the resources currently, maybe in a few years after the crops got going and such but until then they were just going to save the best of the best. He couldn't help but feel a bit bad about it though.

The priest that opened the door hasn't sure what to make of the couple that graced his doorstep, the man was fairly tall and well dressed like a noble but the lady was almost half a foot taller than the man and a foot taller than his own height. They were a strange couple but he plastered an oily smile on his face, he knew that outland nobles had money and normally weren't above tossing it around to get what they wanted. "Can I help you?"

Neville nodded, he would have rather Lexie did the talking but that just wasn't the way things were done here, "Yes, we find ourselves in need of some playmates for our daughter as well as a servant or two, you have some extra girls yes?"

The priest couldn't help but glance at the nobles fine clothes before coming to a decision, "Of course of course, I'll show you around."

Lexie glanced around as she walked through the complex keeping her senses open to find out if any of the girls had the potential to work magic. She wasn't expecting much so she was pleasantly surprised when she noted a girl with a cloak up hanging away from the rest of the students had some magic in her. She gestured toward the girl, "What about her?"

The priest was surprised the girl was the daughter of a local inventor that had died in an 'accident' involving fire and his laboratory exploding. The girl had been heavily scarred by the fire and wasn't likely to ever get adopted despite being smart, then again she had a wicked smart mouth that didn't help. He would happily get rid of her, he'd actually almost pay to get rid of her now that he thought about it, still maybe he could get something out of the outlanders. "I'm sure we could work something out. She's quite good at fixing things."

Lexie had to suppress the desire to reach out and strangle the creepy priest. She spotted a young girl of about five that looked around with inquisitive eyes that hadn't gone dead because of the neglect of the place, she was faintly relieved to find that the girl had magic as well. It made it easier to justify rescuing her, not that she needed much justification. "I'll take that one as well."

Neville sighed theatrically, "Perhaps we should talk to them a bit first? To see if they are well behaved and such?"

"Nonsense, but if you insist I'll stay and chat with them while he shows you around the rest of the place. You can sort out the paperwork and all of that."

Lexie almost broke out into a true smile as the priest left, which gave her the chance to sit down on the table near the burned girl, "So I don't suppose you want to get out of here. I'm a bit of an inventor myself and could use a lab assistant if you're up for it. Oh and if you know any other really smart girls in here we can probably spring them as well."

By the time Neville had finished the tour Lexie had with Tess's help picked out another ten girls she knew that were smart and could probably help. It didn't really hurt that some of the girls had injuries that prevented them from doing very much physical work. It just meant that the price tag on the girls was less than it otherwise might have been. Officially it was billed out in terms of fees and processing bribes and such but it was what it was, they gave the place the price asked and walked out with twelve girls that would help form the human component of the research department. Lexie glanced around before leading the kids into a back alley and opening a gateway. "Let's get out of here before the inquisitors show up."

Tess helped the rest of the girls through the gateway with very little hesitation, it had been inquisitors that had started the fire in her father's workshop, all because he had been accused of magic, which might have been a tiny bit true but that hadn't been a good enough excuse for burning their home down. Still the chance to do something productive with her life was too good a chance to pass up. Besides she knew the priest was bad news and well the two seemed like nice people, it was sort of a knack she had, the ability to tell when someone was bad. Which was why she didn't like any of the priests at the orphanage. She looked around as they found themselves in an open courtyard. She turned to look at Lexie and Neville, "So what's the real deal?"

Lexie grinned, "Well we have a large amount of space and need a team of researchers and scientists as well as witches. I believe I can offer you and your friends a deal too good to turn down. Come and let me show you."

An hour later found Tess outside sitting on a bench processing, they could fix her all her scars if she just agreed to one little probably dangerous experiment. Not only that but there was a chance to have supernatural strength and intelligence, well it wasn't a hard sell really when she thought about it. She'd seen what several of the other enhanced humans could do, it lent a bit of credence to the two's story. Not to mention they had outlined the risks and benefits, shockingly honest about some of the stuff. Still there wasn't anything for it but to try. Which was how she found herself staring at a mirror an hour later after several strange experiences. The first had been having several girls chanting over her followed by a bit of tightness in her skin then a strange sensation as she fell into a deep sleep only to awaken under a silk sheet. She couldn't help the gasp as she looked at her unmarked skin. She ran over to the mirror to take in the extent of the changes. Her skin felt a bit weird slightly less sensitive than before but not too bad all things considered. She couldn't help but smirk at the fact that her hair was now a bright shade of purple. They had warned her that hair color change was a possibility. She smiled as she noted that her breasts weren't just ugly masses of burned tissue that still cracked painfully now and then. She almost couldn't believe it, she had had to pinch herself a few times just to be sure it was real.

Becky smiled as she knocked on the new girl's door, "Hello."

Tess glanced around for a robe before calling out, "Just a minute."

Becky grinned as the new girl opened the door, "So how to you feel? I'm Becky I'll be your guide until you figure out where things are."

Tess blinked, "Are you an elf?"

Becky grinned, "High elf actually, or at least that's what I was back in my world, I'm not sure if you have elves here or if I'm all that much like the elves here. I'm a pokegirl."

"Is that like me?"

Becky chuckles, "Sort of, couple of differences, the magical team worked out some kinks in your version, no insanity if you don't get sex and less of a need for humans."

"Yeah they mentioned a pack need, which didn't seem too bad. At least not compared to the upsides."

Becky grinned, "Shall I show you around?"

"Sure why not, I might as well get used to the place if I'm going to be a researcher."

Willow grinned watched Lexie going over the latest scan of the new girls, "So how do you think the girls will work out?"

"Well once we get them trained up as well as give them English language T2's I'll be a lot happier. Not that the rings aren't nice magical items but it doesn't help with reading. I like the design, strength, endurance and smarts. If it pans out we might have something to trade with the Asgard when they show up."

"Helps that you're stacking the deck with smart girls before you alter them doesn't it?"

Lexie grinned, "Hey, why not. We might as well start the civilization right. Besides we told everyone the up and downsides. So it wasn't like we were hiding things."

Willow nodded, "True, so how soon do you think they'll be ready to help with the science?"

"Depends on how long it takes to get the training machines to do the higher end sciences. If we make liberal use of the training machines to give them the basics and then we expand on that with dream time, well maybe in less than a year depending on how smart they are. We've no way to tell yet just how much the enhancement process increased their intelligence."

Willow nodded, "So be nice and take it easy on them while they are adjusting. I want the girls to have a good life here not be lab rats."

"I know, I'm trying to make something great, not create crazy super geniuses bent on world domination."

Willow chuckled, "You watch too many movies."

Lexie grinned, "Probably."

Hermione frowned distastefully skinning animals just wasn't her thing. She had helped take down some rather scary looking crazed elk like creatures for the gnome girl but hadn't really seen too many other monstrous creatures. Still the gnome girl had been happy enough to give her a set of magical clothes by way of payment for the help skinning. For a couple of rounds of ale and a spell or two from home the girl had been willing to show her a couple of spells as well. At least the suit of magical clothes gave Sabrina something to play with. She figured tomorrow she would have to start flying around Northrend looking for the girl the old fashioned way as it seemed that the magical locating spell only had a limited range here. She wasn't exactly looking forward to it as she didn't much care for flying.


	33. Death of a King

Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the various Buffy characters nor any of the other various characters I've borrowed from various places. I will also for the record state that I don't own World of Warcraft nor it's products or characters. They are owned by Blizzard entertainment or some version of said company.

Illidan Stormrage wasn't sure what had drawn him to the young slightly strange looking elf girl yesterday, perhaps it was because he had seen a flicker of arcane fire in her eyes that resembled the one in his own when he was younger, or perhaps it was because she was the first person in months to acknowledge his existence.

Sabrina smiled as she noticed the elven ghost drift over to her table, she was just glad that after yesterday's awkward and apparently one sided conversation that she had picked a less crowded spot in the inn for her breakfast today. While in most cities the fact that she was an elven mage would have destroyed her ability to have a peaceful dinner, the fact that she was a young mage in a city filled with powerful mages kept people if not friendly than at least civil, especially after the innkeeper had warned that anyone that bothered her would get subjected to his latest attempts to teleport a person, apparently that experiment was still a work in progress. She gestured to the uncluttered spot across from her before whispering, "You're welcome to sit."

Illidan almost smiled, while he couldn't exactly sit without slipping through his seat, he found that a part of him did appreciate the attempt. "Thank you." He edged through the seat until he could lean against the wall. In some ways being reduced to saying 'thank you' to a child grated on his nerves but on the other hand there was a certain amount of relief in being seen. Ever since the night when a band of heroes had forced their way into his stronghold and destroyed his body he had been stuck floating around as a spirit. At first he had been angry at being destroyed but after weeks screaming not to mention even more weeks of sitting and watching the world pass him by he had finally found some peace. It was perhaps a touch humorous but he had felt more like his old self since dieing than he had felt like in some time. Without the strange demonic magic twisting his sight and without having to be constantly on guard against forces trying to destroy him, he was strangely enough much happier in death than in life. "Learning anything?" He gestured to the pile of magical clothes spread out on the table.

While he wasn't overly handsome as such, she couldn't help a small smile as her gaze slid up to his beautiful amber eyes, "I'm working on it, it's not exactly easy reverse engineering things. Not to mention that I get more than a few weird looks every time I leave the inn." She sighed, "I so wanted to see the night elf capital as well."

Illidan nodded, "The elven ruling council doesn't like us elves to be mages, they distrust arcane magic as a rule."

Sabrina shrugged, "Sort of silly if you ask me, seems to me as if they should be taking all of the help they can."

Illidan chuckled darkly, "I learned a long time ago that the people in charge are deeply stupid, for a supposedly immortal race…" He shook his head, "But enough about that, how goes your search?"

Sabrina shrugged, while they hadn't told him why they were searching for their "friend" she had let it slip yesterday that she was looking for someone. Not that he hadn't been nice so far but some things were just better off unsaid, "It goes, Hermione is working on that while I work on piecing together the enchantments on the clothes. Be nice if there was someone I could ask, but the people at the enchanting shop want tons of gold for their secrets and I just don't have that kind of coin."

Illidan frowned before smiling what he hoped was a friendly smile, it had been a while since he actually had needed to really smile, "I might know a bit about enchanting, how about I help you."

Sabrina smiled, "That would be perfect, just give me a minute to lug the stuff back up stairs." She finished the last of her now cold soup with some distaste before gathering the clothes up in her arms. "Don't suppose you're any good at magic are you?"

Illidan couldn't help but chuckle, "I've been known to cast a spell or three in my time."

Sabrina grinned as she walked up toward her room, "Excellent."

Gabrielle couldn't help but smile as she and Rose finished the last bit of the enchantment on the interdimensional portkey rings that would open doorways back to their home in the vortex between worlds. She smiled brightly, "That should do it.

Willow glanced over the rings, "You know you're getting really good at this type of thing."

Gabrielle chuckled, "What can I say mom, I like sleeping in my own bed."

Rose yawned, "I just wish it didn't require some of my blood."

Gabrielle grinned, "Ah, but you taste so good."

Rose glanced at Willow, "You know your daughter is creepy yes?"

Willow grinned and let her fangs show more than normal, "Yeah, she gets it from her father's side."

Rose rolled her eyes, "Yeah, as if. Dad's the normal one in the bunch."

Gabrielle frowned, "You know that's sadly true, a bit scary when you think about it."

Willow licked her lips as she glanced at the still healing pinprick on Rose's finger, "So who all gets a ring?"

Rose grinned, "Well you, if you stop intentionally grossing me out, Gaby's the only one that gets to drink my blood. I figure everyone that lives at home plus Grandpa Giles, "

"What about Auntie Buffy?" Willow frowned.

"Do I have to? She freaked out really badly the last time she came for a visit."

Willow blinked, "What did you do?"

Gabrielle sighed, "Rose had cut herself and I was making sure it was clean before I healed it."

"I'm guessing with your tongue?"

Rose nodded, "Might have been. Still no reason for her to freak. Wasn't even close to that time that Auntie Lexie walked in while the twins and I were…" She blinked, "Ah okay I guess she can have one."

Willow blinked, "I'm going to assume I don't want to know."

Gabrielle chuckled as she hauled Rose off. "Probably better that way."

Willow was still shaking her head as she made her way through the complex to talk with Dawn.

She glanced around Dawn's office as she entered, it didn't have all that many personal items as her real office was back at the castle in the nexus but it had a couple of personal touches, mostly in the way of pictures sitting on the desk. Dawn glanced up as Willow walked in, "How're your projects going today?"

Willow shrugged, "Other than being more than a little disturbed by our kids, not to bad."

Dawn chuckled, "That's good, so you going to find time to get some flying lessons from Sarah?"

"Yeah probably should, it might come in handy at some point. Oh speaking of the girls, how is Hermione doing with Sabrina on their first mission?"

Dawn sighed, "I got a call from her today, they ran into a ghost that's showing Sabrina a few magic tricks but they aren't much closer to finding their mage. They better hurry up unless Hermione wants to have to have sex with the girl."

Willow blinked, "You sound almost jealous, I thought you were having a lot of fun with Talsanra?"

"Oh I am, I mean she's a cute kid in her fake chibi form but no it has more to do with wanting to have Raven there with a video camera. I mean seriously cute."

Willow chuckled, "You're horrible."

"Hey now, don't tell me you didn't enjoy watching Talsanra and I having fun."

Willow grinned, "Oh Hermione and I did very much. So when are you two getting off, I mean finishing work?"

Dawn chuckled at the slight blush on her lover's face, "Shouldn't be much longer."

Willow smiled, "In that case I think I'll leave you to it."

Hermione twitched as she pulled herself awake. It took her a second to remember where she was as she glanced around the darkened inn room. "Stupid slayer dreams."

Sabrina glanced over at the sleepy looking Hermione, "What did you see?"

"Same thing as yesterday, same thing as the day before only it's getting stronger more intense and the feeling of urgency is increasing."

Sabrina frowned, "So you when are we heading there?"

"Probably in the morning, I've been hearing rumors about a large offensive at the wraith gate tomorrow."

"And with our luck…"

"Yeah, we'll probably find our wayward slayer right in the middle of it."

Sabrina chuckled, "Sometimes being lucky goes both ways."

Hermione sighed as she rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

Illidan Stormrage glanced around the city of mages with a slightly gloomy feeling. He couldn't help but wonder if it was a waste of magic to have the city float or if it was a necessary thing considering the power of the Lich King's army. He shook his head, no that was the paranoid power hungry part talking, it was a waste. Those same mages could have levitated a city sized chunk of rock and moved it over the Lich King's fortress and dropped it. It might not have completely destroyed his fortress but they could have at least buried it beneath the ground. Maybe not forever but at least long enough to sweep the rest of the undead from Northrend. He guessed he would find out tomorrow when they confronted the Lich King at the wrath gate what the fates held. Still either way he figured he was done with this world, Hermione had offered him the chance to teach magic, while he had never really seen himself as a teacher it was better than staying around in a world with people too stupid to help themselves. He glanced around at some of the adventurers that were walking the streets at the late hour, "It's hard to tell which are more pathetic, the ones that rush into danger for a small amount of coin or the people that send the brave souls off into danger with no real concern if they come back, after all there are always more foolish heroes seeking coin."

Sabrina glanced up from where she was sitting inside, she chuckled slightly as she thought to herself, 'Probably a bit of both.'

Basha felt a chill run along her spine as she looked across the battlefield and not only saw but felt the massive gates open to reveal the Lich King, a walking nightmare clad in dark metal that terrified everyone that saw him, a fallen king that wasn't worth shit as far as she was concerned. Oh she knew he was powerful but her family had been from Strathholme, luckily they hadn't been there when the town died but they had never forgiven their 'king' for his traitorous behavior the day the king cut down his own people to "save" them from a plague, one that he didn't even bother to try to find a cure for. As far as she was concerned he should have done everyone a favor and died with his people. She blinked as she was jostled by one of the other soldiers in her company. She had a slight smile on her face as she admired Lord Bolvar's courage as he ran forward to confront the Lich King, She was just about to charge with the rest of the people when she was startled by a creepy chill going down her spine. While she had never liked the forsaken to start with the last few weeks it took all of her willpower to not draw her blade and cut them apart. These last few weeks she had been able to sense where the unnatural things were when they got close which was why she was one of the first to look up where a group of forsaken were standing on the hill with catapults. She tried to scream out a warning but it was lost in the sounds of battle. And yet somehow that damned Forsaken's voice could be heard over the battle, "Did you think we had forgotten? Did you think we had forgiven? Behold, now, the terrible vengeance of the Forsaken! Death to the Scourge! And death to the living! Now, all can see this is the hour of the Forsaken."

She couldn't help the fear as the barrels of green shit came flying at the group. She felt her life flash before her eyes, all of her regrets flashed to mind, the strongest being that she didn't want to die to the same shit that killed her homeland. So it was with great surprise when the barrel shattered in the air as if it had struck an invisible barrier. She watched in amazement as the poison swirled around as if caught in a wind and moved toward the Lich King with a determination that couldn't be natural.

Illidan watched the Lich king stagger toward the Wrathgate. He might not be able to do anything directly but his long life had proved that sometimes it was more about luck or chance than anything else. It had been mere chance that had allowed Arthas to get the lucky shot that had almost killed him the last time they fought. Still sometimes mere luck wasn't enough, sometimes it took a whispered dream to make things truly work, which was how something that should never have been found itself happening.

Grand Apothecary Putress was less than amused by the shield blocking his plague from destroying the forces of the living. At least he was for the few seconds it took a rampaging orc war hammer to smash through his skull from behind.

Thrall grinned as he landed after crushing the traitor's head, he spared a glance to the portal resting ten feet in the air before he swung his hammer around and smashed another one of the traitorous forsaken to shards. He couldn't help but feel the glory of battle as he waded through the battle field with his elite guards. He hadn't been intending to take the field himself but as a shaman when the spirits told you something was needed you did it.

Sylvanas Windrunner smiled grimly as she stepped out of a second portal and raised her bow and let fly with her arrows. Arrows tipped with the strongest poison she could find and the most destructive blessings Thrall could do. She just hoped it was enough as she put arrow after arrow into the traitor at the heart of the maelstrom of poison.

Hermione felt the strain as she stood on the flying carpet she had borrowed from her new gnome friend. She wasn't sure who the group of orcs were that were rampaging through the undead minions on the hill but she was grateful. It had been hard to shield the whole area, professor McGonagall would have been proud of her spell work. She twisted her wand a couple of times as she increased the magic causing the cloud to condense on the Lich King.

Sabrina nervously pushed more magic into the barrier that covered the flying carpet and shielded them from attack while trying to maintain the damn carpet's stability.

Bolvar tore himself away from trying to smash at the shield blocking his path to the Lich King as he spotted off in the distance a flight of dragons closing the distance at an insane rate. "Retreat!"

Sylvanas's face twisted into a dark smile as the Lich King fell to a knee as blessed arrow after arrow embedded themselves into his flesh. She was slightly disturbed that the monster was still trying to crawl toward the safety of the Wrathgate. She renewed her assault on the Lich King's body as he planted his sword in the ground and shook the earth.

Hermione staggered as her shield buckled under the Lich King's attack, she dropped it in favor of maintaining the spell to contain the toxin. She wasn't sure how long she could maintain the spell, she just hoped that everyone was using this stolen time to flee.

Sabrina couldn't help but be amazed as she watched the dragons fly in from the south. She didn't think that anyone would believe her without a pensieve. She admired the way the dragon fire consumed the poison and the creature inside. She was only slightly sad that they stayed to burn to slag the monster's blade but she figured it was probably cursed anyways.

Basha was more than a little surprised when the strangers that had been toasted as responsible for saving the whole strike force approached her as the camp fires died and as the troops made their way to bed. It had been a glorious day for the alliance and horde. The horde had left to retake Sylvanas's city. She sighed, say what you will about the rest of the forsaken but at least the leader had style. "Can I help you with something?"

Hermione smiled, she was just happy to finally find the slayer she was looking for, while she didn't think she would go with her nor did it look like she needed training it wouldn't hurt to get to know the girl and maybe answer a few questions. "Perhaps, had any dreams lately?"

Willow glanced up from her reports as Gabrielle walked in. "How's things going? I heard that Hermione and Sabrina's mission went well."

"Wouldn't know, our little elf enchantress was too busy screwing Morrigan's brains out to tell too many stories."

"So how come you're here?"

"Sabrina's asleep and Morrigan's cuddling with her. While they're cute I got hungry so I skipped out so they could get their rest. So how come you aren't snuggling with Hermione?"

Willow chuckled, "Apparently she drank a bit too much celebrating some great event and decided to sleep it off."

Gabrielle nodded, "So what are you working on?"

"I just finished the paper work for a new teacher, apparently they brought back a ghostly mage that is willing to teach some magic classes. Other than that I'm trying to figure out what to do about a request from some mutants that Logan knows, apparently they could use a place to stay for a while."

Gabrielle nodded absently as she thought over the probable crop yields the elves were claiming they would have the next year. "As long as they are willing to follow the rules and bring enough supplies for a couple of months it shouldn't be a problem. We should be able to find something for everyone to do."

Willow grinned, "I'll let Rogue borrow Ivy for screening."

"We should probably send Zelda, Trix and Alsius for bodyguards. Besides I don't really want to wake up to ice cold sheets, which might happen if Alsius doesn't get to go. I think all of Rogue's stories about her ice friend left her with a crush on him."

Willow grinned, "You're just hoping they end up together so you have someone that wants to deal with the northern lands."

"Hey having a race of ice people sounds worthwhile to me, and if they are happy all the better. But if he breaks her heart I'm going to break something of his."

"Just nothing too important okay?"

"Fine fine."


	34. Atlantis Bound

Xander frowned as a pajama clad psychic sleepily stumbled into the wreck room. Even the girl's jester hat looked bedraggled, "How's the screening going?"

Ivy yawned glanced around and stumbled over to flop down next to Xander on the couch, "I'm not sure which is worse, screening a bunch of tweed wearing scheming old people or a bunch of mutant teenagers."

He chuckled, "Probably the kids, at least the old people are just visitors and thus aren't as important. So how many got through your screening process?"

Ivy shrugged, "Most of them, there were only a couple of plants in the bunch, but Helen and I were able to weed them out."

He chuckled, "If your jokes are that feeble, you really do need some sleep."

Ivy yawned and shook her head causing the bells on her hat to ring, "It wasn't that bad." At his raised eyebrows, "Okay, fine it wasn't the best." She sighed, "I know it's important but I sort of wish we had more psychics, or at least some celestial girls with aura sight."

Xander shrugged, "Don't look at me, I'm not the one that decided that they couldn't be trusted and would just run off and do "good" deeds. Not that I think Gabrielle is wrong on that account."

Ivy grumbled, "Fine, maybe we could talk Rose into sending Talsanra back to the pg world and copying some of their techs, that way we wouldn't need them."

"You're just tired of looking through the mutants' minds for issues."

Ivy scrunched up her face in disgust, "You'd be grumpy too if you had to sort through the crap in their teenage minds trying to figure out if they were border line psychopaths or just haunted from their days hiding what they were. I thought pokegirls were bad thinking about sex everyday… but some of the mutant boys make Anya look shy."

"They can't be that bad, but hey if it's bothering you we can get you reassigned and get Helen to take over full time. Either way you look like you could use a break, go crash and in the morning go hang out with your friends for a day. The mass of humanity wanting to immigrate will still be there tomorrow or the next day, besides who knows maybe Helen will actually sort through all of the applicants and you'll be home free."

Ivy shook her head mournfully, "Not likely, though I should probably go see what the gang is up to. Keep them out of trouble and all of that."

Xander grinned, "Right… so why is it that the girls get in more trouble when you're around?"

"Just lucky that way. Now if you'll excuse me, my bed has my name on it."

"Night," He chuckled as the Trixie made her way out of the wreck room. He sighed, on the one hand he knew it was something that had to be done but on the other, he didn't think it was fair to have Ivy have to do most of the work, especially as she was just a kid. He rubbed his eyes and muttered to himself, "When did it get so damn hard to do the right thing?"

John O'Neill grinned as he watched the group step out of the Stargate. They had requested help from his home dimension's Stargate command. He hadn't been expecting quite the group they had received. He figured they would send a couple of scientists on account of the fact that the Watcher's Council had helped them with funding but he hadn't been expecting to see SG-1 and SGA-1 step out of the gate before it closed.

Rodney McKay held up his hands as he glanced around the gate room and noted that there were a half dozen large mounted plasma cannons pointed at the gate and thus himself, "We come in peace? Please don't blow us to pieces."

John Sheppard glanced around the room, "Nice set up, how come we can't get the brass to spring for something like this?"

Sam chuckled, "You know, after all the issues we had with ours we probably should."

Jack chuckled, "I'm sure we can bring it up at the next budget meeting." He glanced at the personal sitting on the cannons, "We brought steak and beer."

John O'Neill smirked, "Stand down troops." He looked over at Jack, "Nice you came."

Jack grinned, "How could we refuse your generous offer of a peaceful place to spend some vacation time, and well the idea of a peaceful day at the river didn't hurt."

John Sheppard glanced around at the new faces, "So anyone care to introduce people?"

Rodney grumbled, "What about lunch?"

John O'Neill chuckled, "I'll send for snacks."

Lexie smiled as she looked over the group from John's home world as she introduced the rest of the people in the gate room.

John Sheppard glanced over the other group, he knew the other John by reputation as well as Amanda, Patrick and Jason, as the rest weren't wearing military colors he assumed they were with the Watcher's council. His eyes drifted over several of the young ladies in the other group before settling on the tallest person there, "Wait, you're the team's geek?"

Lexie chuckled, "Guilty as charged, and Tess here is the muscle."

Tess grinned at the flabbergasted looks on the Sg teams' faces. "Bio-engineered weapon of destruction, I'm stronger than I look."

Rodney blinked, "But you're a kid."

Tess shrugged, while she was a teenager not a kid per say she could understand his point of view, "I'm working on my lab tech qualifications, but until Lexie signs off on the stuff I'm filling in as a bodyguard. Lexie, while perfectly able to take care of herself in a fight tends to get a bit distracted when she has a project." She chuckled as Lexie rolled her eyes at her, "Well you do, besides Gabrielle would be pissed if anything happened to you."

"Mom would never let us do anything fun again."

John chuckled, "We can relate. So what does the rest of your team do?"

Morrigan grinned, "Combat specialist, stealth and reconnaissance. Sarah is our pilot and Tabby and Gabrielle are lab techs, though if it comes down to it they can defend themselves."

Gabrielle shrugged at her friends' strange looks, "I needed one last science field work credit."

Teal'c looked the other group over, "Can anyone you're sending not fight?"

Gabrielle nodded, "Several of the other members of Tess's scientist group don't have what I would call sufficient combat training but they have the basics."

Sheppard frowned, "And by the basics you mean?"

Tess grinned, "She means that if something hostile interrupts their work they can and will pull out the equivalent of a plasma cannon and blast holes in it. However while they are capable in a fight we try to not stress them out by sticking them in combat that often."

Rodney blinked before grinning, "I don't suppose…"

Tess chuckled, "No, you can't steal my girls."

Sam frowned, "Okay, so to wrap this up before Jack starts crying about his steak, you had mentioned your plans to retake the Atlantis in this dimension, that's why we brought more of the data we had on it but you never said exactly what you're expecting out of us."

Gabrielle grinned, "What we can't just invite you guys for steak?"

John O'Neill sighed as he looked from Gabrielle to his counterpart, "Cut the jokes, we have steaks waiting. The lab techs," He gestured to Lexie and Tess, "expressed interest in having people that had been there before around when they started the process to raise the city from the ocean floor and the cleaning and repair, not to mention she wanted to pick Rodney's brain about the tech."

Rodney grinned as he glanced over at the cute girls, "I'm sure we could spare a couple of days, right?"

Sam glanced at Jack, "Just think of the exchange of information if we were able to get to some of the things in this world before they were destroyed."

Jack shivered slightly, "Like the ancient database."

Sam nodded, "Exactly, Sir, I think we should take some time, hell we all have vacation time we haven't used. Some of us a lot of it."

Jack sighed, "Daniel?"

The linguist nodded, "I wouldn't mind another crack at several of the sites, I'll make a list of the most important ones."

Gabrielle grinned, "I'm just looking forward to seeing how much we can improve the ships we have by incorporating some ancient tech into them. But we can go over this mess later, for now let's get to the camp site and start up the grill. You mentioned needing the Stargate for something?"

Jack nodded, "Yeah, sort of a long explanation though, it can wait until we have the steaks started."

Sam sighed, "Might as well at this point."

Xander frowned he had listened to Jack explain about how they had found another use for the ninth chevron, probably the original use for it technically, but that didn't really change anything. They had a number of crew with limited supplies trapped on an ancient starship hurtling through space at inconceivable speeds, and wanted to use the Stargate here or back home to send troops and supplies to their stranded people. As apparently the one they had on earth couldn't connect with the destiny. He tried to figure out how exactly to deal with such a request as they really could benefit from the two team's expertise but he really didn't want to be responsible for stranding more people. "I'd have to talk it over with the others, but I don't see a problem with sending some supplies to them. We'll figure something out."

Gabrielle listened with half a mind as she listened to the adults discussing the various missions they wanted to go on, it wasn't that she didn't want to go, she did and was, because hello lost city of Atlantis, it was just that she was fairly sure that when it came down to it, it wasn't really up to her where they went. While she could overrule people at least to an extent as the project leader for this dimension, it would be rather stupid to overrule the experts. She was just hoping that the trip across the universe would prove as profitable as she was hoping, though she was curious how much difference the two cities would have, what with the differing levels of magic between the two dimensions. She was just slightly glad that none of her staff used actual paper for the paperwork, it was all done via the magical computers, the very same ones that networked back to the Nexus and thus would work even when she was on the other side of the galaxy. While yes that meant that she couldn't get away from the paperwork it did mean that she could stay in contact with her project leaders and manage things from Atlantis at least for a couple of weeks before she would have to come back here and deal with things personally. She frowned, when the hell had life gotten complicated, she sighed as she realized it had been when she had stepped forward and agreed to control the setup for the new world for her mother's council. She would have to talk to her moms about assigning a project head for the Pegasus galaxy.

Rodney McKay frowned as he glanced over the computer files on Tess's team, they weren't exactly checked out on everything he would have liked but if how long they had been working on things was any indication then they were all quick studies. He had to grudgingly admit that with a few weeks under their belts they would be better than most of the idiots he had to put up with back at the SGC. He figured that in a week he would be ready to raise Atlantis and then start the process of making her flight worthy. That's assuming that they could find enough ZPMs to bring the ship up to full power. He sighed as he realized that it would be a long vacation but potentially a profitable one, especially if he used every trick in his not inconsiderable bag of tricks. "The Wraith won't know what hit them."

Carter chuckled as she watched Daniel watch Vala Mal Doran with more than a trace of interest, not that it was all that surprising considering Vala was dancing rather intimately with a dark haired girl that was wearing something that could at best be considered a skirt though in reality it was more like two narrow knee length loin cloths that hung from a gold chain link belt. The girl's wild dancing was doing little to make sure the strips of crimson silk stayed where they were supposed to be. Still she had to admit that she was having a better time at the barbeque turned party than she had been expecting. It was to celebrate their leaving tomorrow for Atlantis, well that and the fact that the long week of work everyone had spent training, packing and gathering supplies was over. She hadn't been quite sure what exactly to expect but dancing and drinking and generally all around chatting around several bonfires hadn't been it, at least not to the extent everyone was partying. Still it was sort of nice to cut lose and relax a bit, hell Jack had even been having a good enough time that he hadn't protested, much, when she had stolen a dance with him earlier. She blinked as she noticed the red head girl that approached her. "Sorry can't remember your name."

Lily smiled and took pity on the lady, "Lilyanne, though most people call me Lily."

"Ah, I remember now, medical?"

Lily nodded, "Yup, I'll be helping whichever real doctor they send for the Atlantis trip." She nodded toward the girl dancing with Vala, "Mostly I'm just going so that I can spend time with my girlfriend. Breena has been really anxious to get a hold of the Ancients' tech."

Carter blinked as the pieces fell into place, she had read the reports on the starship that Miss Skywalker had been working on but she hadn't gotten the chance to meet her yet, plus the reports didn't say she was still a teenager, "That's Breena?"

Lilyanne chuckled, "I'm guessing from the shocked look on your face you were expecting someone older?"

"You could say that."

"She grew up repairing starships, among other things. I'm sure you and her will have a lot to talk about once you get to Atlantis." Lily smiled as she watched Breena grind against Vala, "I should probably go rescue your friend before they have way too much fun." She glided over toward Daniel and pulled him toward Vala only to smile and with a quick, "Can I cut in?" deftly swapped him for Breena, "Heya honey, you miss me?"

Daniel blinked, "Ah."

Vala's smile would have scared a shark, "Just the man I've been looking for. Dance with me."

Sam chuckled as his light protest was lost as he was pulled into the crowd. She blushed faintly as she noticed that Lily's hand was under the girl's skirt as she led the other girl away toward the refreshment table. She shook her head, "I don't think I'll ever get used to this place."

Rodney McKay chuckled as he walked toward Carter holding out an extra cup of coffee, "Ah but the coffee is the best I've ever had. Even better than that one coffee place in college, now that place could make a cup. I'm going to have to see if they can share their secret."

Carter chuckled as she took the extra cup of coffee, "So how's things going?"

"I'm fairly sure that none of the lab techs will blow anything up when we raise the city. I've made a backup of the city raising program just incase my modifications don't work. Not that I expect them not to, but if the last couple of years have taught me anything it's not to take unnecessary chances. If worst comes to worst then we abandon the city and leave via magic. Which is still freaky to consider, I keep looking for the force field generator or what not."

Carter grinned, "I felt the same way when we first met them a couple of years ago. Still I'm sort of looking forward to starting things off right."

McKay chuckled, "You're just looking forward to getting to fly a jumper, or perhaps something better."

Carter chuckled, "I'm sort of curious about Miss Skywalker's ship designs and how it might compare with some of the ships the Hebridans have."

"You're as bad as Sheppard."

Carter grinned, "Oh come on, you want to see the stuff as much as I do, or maybe you're just too distracted by looking at the tech team."

McKay sputtered, "No thank you, Keller and I are doing just fine, thank you very much."

The trip through the gate to Atlantis was just as uneventful as he thought it would be. The M.A.L.P had reported no activity and no sign of toxins.

He felt a bit useless as he tried to stay out of the various techs way as they went about plugging the various generators they had brought into the city's power grid. Everyone was operating on the belief that the city's ZPMs were critically low and while the shield hadn't collapsed as much as the other Atlantis's shield had they didn't want to drain the power any more than they had to. Which meant not sending people all over the city exploring until McKay finished sending the city to the surface.

McKay grinned, "Almost done."

Jack braced against a wall as the city lurched as it started its assent to the surface. He smiled as the ship leveled out on the surface, "Conditions of the power supply?"

McKay reached for his computer and hit a few commands, "Not really enough to do much of anything with but no longer quickly heading toward complete failure. Enough to use the chair if we have to and have a few hours of shield use. Still, we have enough power to explore the city without doing damage to anything."

He glanced over at Carter, "Why don't you and Sheppard go make sure that energy creature you guys ran into the first time around is secured."

Carter nodded, "Yes sir. You remember where it was John?"

"Yeah."

Jack frowned as Sheppard and Carter headed out, "You remember any other immediate threats?"

Daniel shrugged, "Other than walking into Janus's lab? If it's even here in this reality, not really."

Jack turned to look at McKay, "How confidant are you that you can keep the tracking device from going off?"

"Look, I've got dozens and dozens of things to worry about before I worry about that lab. That's assuming it's even in this version of reality. Like the lightning collectors for power. We're going to need the power eventually. We should send some people down to see if that Wraith ship is on the ocean floor here as well. You know this would be a lot easier if we actually had some other techs from back home."

Jack shrugged, "Yeah well, we don't. It's not exactly a paid sanctioned side trip. We were supposed to come and ask about sending food to the destiny and other than that the less the people in charge back home know about things the better."

Gabrielle frowned and glanced at Jack, "Sorry you're right, thanks for helping out as much as you have. I'll have Morrigan and crew talk with Sheppard when he gets back. It would net us the deep sea power plant and potentially interesting knowledge about the Wraith from their ship. If it's down there."

Jack glanced around, "Anything else?"

McKay nodded, "There are a couple of dangerous devices but as long as people don't go messing with things for the first couple of days we should be good."

"Alright get to work people." Jack started heading out of the tower, "I'm going to go claim a room."

Gabrielle frowned, "Damn, should have thought about that."

McKay frowned, "Actually that's not a bad idea. Besides if I don't get the same room I had then I'll continually be going to the wrong one. Let's take a break for lunch, by then Carter and Sheppard should be back."

Gabrielle grinned, "Sounds good to me."

Sheppard wearily glanced at the cage that contained the energy creature. "You sure we can't just gate this to the Genii home world?"

Carter chuckled, "Somehow I think that would end badly. Besides you might give the poor creature indigestion."

"So what should we do with it?"

"I guess toss it on the same barren world you did last time."

Sheppard grinned, "One problem down, fifty to go."

Carter grinned, "Hey you're the one that wanted a chance to start things off right."

"Fine, fine, let's go see how everyone else is doing."

John O'Neil glanced around the tower room with amusement, everyone Jack included had been running around ragged the last several days much to his amusement. It wasn't that he wasn't tired himself, he was, but he was rather pleased with the new assignments. In a few weeks SG-1 would be returning to their world. So they had taken the chance to do a little bit of sightseeing and investigating. Daniel was having a great deal of fun being shown around various worlds with SGA-1. Teyla and Ronon had wanted to visit the counter parts to their worlds, Ronon in particular was looking forward to seeing something close to his world again. John was spending a decent amount of his free time fishing off the east peer. He glanced over at Sheppard, "You know I almost envy you, the fishing here…"

Sheppard grinned, "Oh yeah, you should see the whales. And the lobster…"

"Now you're just messing with me."

Sheppard laughed, "Maybe."

O'Neil frowned, "I heard you're going to be the leader here, how long are you staying?"

"Probably until they get Atlantis back in the Pegasus Galaxy back home and we get back to work. It looks like home, but it's not. I mean don't get me wrong, it's nice to be able to do stuff but honestly, I don't really want the job for longer than it takes to train someone else to do it. Hell I tried to get out of it, I suggested you."

"Gee thanks, twist the knife a bit harder, I'm already pretty much in charge of the Milky Way stargate operations. I really don't need the added stress. I don't need to end up as white haired as Jack."

Sheppard rolled his eyes, "You're going to someday."

"Yeah but not today. So you planning your next mission?"

"Yeah, I sort of want to see what Gabrielle's strike force can do before we decide on how to deal with the wrath. So we're going to go after the drilling platform."

"I remember reading about that, wasn't there a queen stuck down there?"

"Yep, be a good test to see how they handle it."

John grinned, "After seeing them train, I almost feel sorry for the queen."

Gabrielle frowned as she watched Morrigan toss the wraith queen around like a rag doll, she was losing a bit more respect for the wraith every time the queen charged Morrigan and was tossed into a different wall. She had thought from the descriptions of the damned things that they would actually be impressive but sadly apparently they weren't all that much stronger than humans. "Morrigan, we need her alive."

Morrigan sighed as she pulled out a zat and zapped the queen once, "Fine, ruin all my fun."

John Sheppard rolled his eyes, "Just get the thing back in the jumper, and be happy you have body armor. You really don't want to find out the hard way what it feels like when one of those things feeds on you."

Morrigan nodded, "Sorry, I was just doing a strength test. Stupid things are damn near as strong as I am but I'm faster."

Gabrielle frowned, "Good to know, hopefully we can figure out if transmutation magic works on this thing."

John shrugged, "Her information is going to be hopelessly out of date. If you can figure out something useful to do with her go for it."

"Just what I wanted to hear."

Rodney frowned at the girl with a cat tail and ears that was happily following him around. "Do you have to be so damn cheerful? And why can't you just phase through the trap and grab the ZPM?"

Abby frowned, "I'm normally cheerful, and well do you really want to try to phase something with enough power trapped inside to blow up the world? Besides this was the easiest ZPM to find, and no we aren't stealing the one that powers the kids' shield on the kid planet."

"I wasn't going to suggest it."

"Nah, but you were thinking of the place."

"Stop reading my mind, it tickles."

"Fine, stop complaining and get with the moving. Sooner we get to the various burial site the sooner I can phase in and grab the nine keys and the sooner we can get out."

"Well you should have parked closer to the site then shouldn't you have?"

"Hey you're the one that gave me the faulty directions."

"It's been a while, give me a break."

Abby turned and stuck out her tongue at Rodney.

Rodney sighed, "You're just like the kids on that planet that stole my chocolate last time."

"Now you're just complaining to complain." She smiled as she danced ahead.

Jack glanced over the various reports before looking back up at Carter, "I just wish we could take a couple of ZPMs back with us. Maybe if we find a couple of more they'll let us take one back. We collected the one from the ancient outpost back in the Milky Way already, they are using it to power their chair. Rodney and Abby got back a couple of hours ago with the ZPM from Dagan. There are a few more scattered, as soon as he stuffs some food in himself he is taking a crew down to the drilling platform to see about moving it and supplying the ship with even more power. One fully charged ZPM and two salvageable ones with another salvageable one to act as a spare. They have some leads on finding some more as well."

Carter frowned, "Where?"

"Gabrielle was looking through the old logs this past week, she came up with a rather fiendish plan but she'll need yours and Rodney's technical skills to pull off."

"Do I even want to know?"

He grinned, "Hey, I happen to like the plan."

"Now I know it's suspect."

Jack grinned, "Hey, all we need is a cloaked ship, some stolen property and we should be able to make things work."

Carter blinked as Jack explained the plan, "That might just work, I can't believe we never thought about it before."

Jack chuckled, "We'll to be fair we had other things to worry about by the time we knew about all of the pieces of the plan back home. So you think you can do it?"

Carter shrugged, "Actually yes, I have all of the notes I would need on my computer."

"It almost feels like shooting fish in a barrel."

She grinned, "Just about. Though the only issue is how are you going to get it off Dakara and get it some place we can use it."

Jack grinned, "Actually it's not really that hard. We sneak onto Dakara using the personal cloaks, have Rose send the weapon to another world then we travel back through the gate and then use it to reach Atlantis, from here we can set it up, you and Rodney do your freaky tech changing act and modify it with an anti-replicator disruptor and unleash it on the Asurans. It's a pity we can't use it on the wraith but they are too close to human for it not to kill everyone."

Carter frowned, "I'm not sure it's quite that simple but it might actually be viable now that we have enough ZPMs to power the gate back to earth."

Jack grinned, "Plus there are probably dozens of ZPMs and quite possibly the ability to make more if we leave their cities intact. If you think it will work talk to Rodney about it. Just a ZPM alone is worth an extra couple of weeks."

Gabrielle frowned as she glanced around the council meeting in Atlantis's meeting room. She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about completely wiping out a civilization outside of fair combat but hell they were going to pose a problem if they weren't dealt with. In for a penny in for a pound, or something like. "Do it, more cities to comb though means we can afford to abandon this one when the Ancients come back."

John frowned, "So you're planning on rescuing the ancients despite how they treated us the last time?"

"You have a better idea?" Jack shrugged as people looked at him, "Just asking."

Gabrielle shrugged, "Their city, we're just guests. That being said, I wouldn't mind having a while before we are forced to run back to earth."

Breena frowned, "I'm not leaving before I get a chance to look over the hyperdrive specs for the various ancient ships. I want to know how they work."

Lily sighed, "And I don't want to leave before I figure out the ship's medical information, but honestly that's going to take a while."

Gabrielle slammed her hand on the table, "Enough, we are downloading as much as we can as fast as we can to the mainframe in the Nexus. We should be done with that in several weeks, maybe months depending on exactly how much junk is in the database. Echo is working furiously adding memory and extra crystal drives as we need them. Even if it takes a storeroom the size of a stadium we'll get what we can. I believe you all have projects to do?" She waited for the various nods before dismissing the various people.

Jack chuckled as the rest of the people left, "You're getting rather good at that. You sure you aren't planning to stay here?"

She shrugged, "Nah, I have to get back and worry about how earth is doing. It's been a large help having you here."

"No problem kid. Besides I just want to see people's faces when we come back with a couple of fully charged ZPMs."

Gabrielle grinned, "I'm sure anything you take back will be put to use."

"You think I could get a starship back?"

"Probably not unless it fits through the stargate. As Dawn said never again. The last time she passed out for several days."

"Not even a small one?"

"Probably not."

"Damn."

"Yeah, I understand the feeling. I still haven't gotten my own space ship."

Jack frowned, "How long have you been waiting?"

"A couple of years."

He shook his head, "I've been doing this more than ten years and still haven't gotten my own starship."

"You got a class of Asgard starships named after you though."

"Yeah that was pretty cool."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Take care, I should get going I need to grab something to eat then help Sam with some lab work."

"Any idea with what?"

"No clue."


	35. Return of Old Friends

Harry Potter glanced over at the other side of the large black leather couch where Ginny was resting against a naked Hermione while playing with a laptop. They were alternating between giggles and out and out disgusted groans, he couldn't help but chuckle a bit as Ginny punched the laptop delete key hard enough to cause the computer to beep at her in what could almost be mistaken for an affronted tone. She scrunched up her face in disgust, "Oh hell no, I knew people were evil but gah!"

He chuckled, they had been driving themselves crazy working the last few weeks without the children around to distract them, so they had decided to take a brake and raid the twins' extra computer. After Harry and Hermione had just about given themselves whiplash looking away from the contents of some of her movie files, they had decided that looking through the Harry Potter fan fiction site she had bookmarked on her computer was probably safer. He had given up with such things after seeing some of the ones that paired him and Draco. Being that Dawn had flat out refused to open a portal into the other world so he could find the guy or girl responsible for writing such utter shit and kill them, or at least beat him to within an inch of their life, he had been forced to give up on reading the stuff.

Mostly he was taking the time to enjoy watching his Wife and girlfriend relax. Relaxation wasn't something they had been able to enjoy much of lately, too busy working on various projects or trying to avoid stepping in the middle of the arguments Molly Weasley's latest communication had caused. She wanted to come and live in the new world because she was tired of missing out on visiting her grandkids. William and Lilypad didn't particularly want her around fulltime because according to Lily she was a stick in the mud when it came to clothes, not to mention she kept talking about her finding a nice boy some day. William was really tired of having to keep Echo from just telling her, "I'm fucking him get over it." whenever she looked at her weird. He knew Ginny wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea either but well it was her mother. Privately he figured if she would just get a computer rather than trying to talk people into enchanting the floo so it worked across the dimensions it would be better and a lot less stressful all around. As much as he was grateful to her for being caring while he was going to school, he was getting more than a bit tired of his mother-in-law's stubborn refusal to understand the concept of operational security. There was no way in hell he was giving the ministry access to his new home nor the new world. He was brought out of his drifting as he noticed Ginny chuckling particularly loudly. "What's up?"

Ginny chuckled, "It's just this fanfic pairs Hermione with Buffy, and you with myself and Dawn… it's rather cute."

"You and Buffy eh?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "That's just creepy. Maybe if I wasn't with Dawn, but seriously do they have nothing better to do?"

He chuckled, "Probably not."

Ginny glanced at the fic again before closing the laptop and setting it on the table. She smiled as she stretched out and placed her feet in his lap. "Perfect."

Hermione ran her hand along Ginny's arm lightly, "Yeah, just about. Sadly it's not going to last."

Harry sighed, "So… not that I'm not enjoying the sight of two lovely girls lounging but…"

Ginny sighed as Hermione stopped trailing her hand over her arm, "But we should probably come to a decision that isn't going to get any one killed."

Hermione chuckled, "Just a touch over dramatic but still, point."

Harry shrugged, "So how about we move her now while the most of the kids are in Atlantis, then she'll be here when they get back and we can take a vacation…"

Ginny snickered, "Coward."

"It would have been so much easier if a certain someone hadn't mentioned that we had offered to move the Grangers."

Ginny shrugged, "Sorry, I didn't think Ron would sell me out."

Harry chuckled, "You know he only did it because she was pestering him about spending more time with him and Alexia."

Hermione smiled slightly even as she sighed, "Honestly that man needs more of a spine."

"Oh please, I didn't see you sticking around for the fireworks." He grinned as he watched Hermione blush slightly.

"She's your mother." Hermione reached up and patted Ginny on the head.

"So what about yours?"

"They've spent enough time with the girls over the years, I don't really think we'll have to worry that much about them. Besides they'll be so busy looking through the various dental and medical stuff from the other worlds that I doubt they will even notice."

He grinned, "I suggest we move her to a place near Ron and let him deal with her."

"You still pissed about the twenty crowns he owes you?"

"Hey, a bet is a bet. He should have known better then to bet that William could beat Rose in a race."

Ginny chuckled, "Yeah, well he says that because of the bet the kids fixed the race, so he shouldn't have to pay."

He shrugged, "I give it a month before he's pulling out his hair."

Hermione smiled, "You're mean."

He grinned, "So now that that is settled, any word from Bill?"

"Yeah, his last message was from England, Giles is having him and Ron working on finding a flaw in the demon priests' wards and such things." Ginny sighed, "So what are we going to do about the priests?"

He sighed, "Not sure, I've been slightly afraid to look at the suggestion box since I read Gabrielle's suggestion of using an Al'kesh and blowing all of the temples in Europe up from orbit."

Hermione ran her hand up Ginny's leg and brushed her finger tips across her friend's stomach. "I'm sure a few weeks away will calm her down, besides Leo has a couple of ideas that might help."

Ginny closed her eyes as she relaxed, "Do I want to know?"

"He wouldn't say, just said that it wouldn't be traceable back to him or England but would cause the church a decent amount of hassle."

Harry grinned as he watched Hermione move her hand lower on his wife's stomach, "Well if that's all the business we have sounds like a reason to have some fun."

Ginny grinned as Hermione shifted her hands up to her breasts as Harry crawled over to start planting light kisses on her legs. She giggled at the feel of his tongue. She smiled as she twitched in anticipation, she was just happy that Willow and Dawn didn't mind sharing Hermione.

Leo glanced at where Laura was fidgeting, "Just a few more minutes and we can take a nice long walk to stretch."

She grumbled, "But you've been looking through the church crap for hours."

Thomas the ghost of St Augustine's Abbey grinned, "That church "crap" as you call it could possibly destabilize the Catholic church and make your job easier. It takes a certain amount of skill to figure out the exact arguments to post and when and where." He glanced again at the printouts of Martin Luther's ninety five theses that were spread out on the table as well as the hand drawn copies spread out on the table in from of the ghost. He couldn't help but be a bit amused at the story of the guy from the other timeline, still some of the guy's stuff was a bit insane. He smiled as he picked up the quill that was specially enchanted for his ghostly fingers, "I want to make sure I have a wide enough sample of various critics of the church that I can use everything to come up with a concise series of papers to destabilize them. I'm taking a number of things from this Martin Luther fellow and a few things from other sources. By the time I'm done the church will be so distracted that we should have enough time to prepare a proper defense for Brittan."

Laura scowled at the hand written documents, "I don't really think that it's going to help, but hey probably won't hurt us that much. Though if they stop selling indulgences then they aren't going to have as much gold when we mug them."

"I think you'll survive." He smiled as he patted her on the head like a child.

She grinned up at him, "So if this goes badly can we just kill all of the demon tainted priests?"

He shrugged, "I'm planning on it, unless Giles can figure out how they are getting their power and we can kill it."

Kyara glanced around carefully as she crept up to the temple doors, glancing at the various other letters posted to the old wooden door, she had no hesitation tacking her collection to the door. She smiled as she phased and turned invisible again before slipping back into the night, by the time the people in charge found out what was on the doors the damage would be done, besides worst case she could always travel to other churches and post the same thing. She wasn't exactly sure why Leo didn't just want her to loot the damn thing and burn it down on the way out but she guessed he was hoping for some type of self-perpetuating cultural destruction of the Catholic Church. She wasn't quite that optimistic, but figured she could always loot them later.

Sheppard frowned at Rodney as he hovered over his laptop, "So how sure are you that this will work?"

Rodney shook his head, "Fairly, look we know we can shut down the gate network back home," He gestured toward the laptop that was currently running a simulation, "We also know how to dial all of the gates at once. Carter set the Dakara weapon so that it would be useable against replicators, thus all we have to do is have the computer dial everything and send the pulse through."

"If you're so sure it's going to work, why aren't we on Atlantis." He gestured toward the makeshift camp set up on an abandoned world.

Rodney shrugged, "The other John didn't want knowledge of Atlantis compromised if things didn't work perfectly. He's just being careful."

Sheppard shrugged, "Just promise me you aren't going to blow up five sixths of the solar system this time."

Rodney grinned as he connected the cable to the DHD, "Of course not. One half at most if things go wrong." He grinned as he pushed the button and the network started connecting the gates simultaneously. He couldn't help feeling a certain amount of vengeful glee as he pushed the button on the Dakara weapon.

Sheppard chuckled, "You know Gabrielle is going to be pissed when she learns that she didn't get to push the button."

Rodney grinned, "She'll get over it. Besides she could always go through the gate first to make sure they are all dead."

"Sadly she would actually think that would be a great deal of fun."

Rodney chuckled, "Speaking of fun, you sure we can't target the Genjii?"

Sheppard sighed, "Don't tempt me."

"Anyways we don't have the time anyways, once we finish this we have to get the teams in place to capture the Asuran's ships and then set up the trap for the Wraith. Perhaps after all that is done then we can move along to other projects."

John chuckled, "Start breaking camp, I want nothing here if anyone comes to investigate. How long until Rose picks the weapon up?"

"She should be ready to transport it within the hour."

John nodded, "We'll call the beta site and have them dial the Asuran's city and start exploring, if things go well then we'll have a life time of data to analyze when we get back."

Abby kept glancing over her shoulder as she explored the deserted city, it had been creepy walking through the city, there were piles of strange goo all over that she tried not to think about. It hadn't taken them long to realize that they needed either more time than they had or magic in order to break the encryptions on the programs for accessing the best information, namely the details for actually making ZPMs and the codes for the ships. Luckily it had taken Gabrielle about five minutes to crack the system with magic and a couple of more to find what she wanted. "I guess my girl being a techno pagan has some advantages."

Carter frowned as she remembered the ease with which Gabrielle had hacked the system, "You know I still think it was cheating, not that I'm complaining. I'm not even sure where to start downloading."

"What about starting with how to make better memory devices?"

Carter grinned, "Sounds like a plan."

"So how long do you think it will take to get the ships under our control?"

"It's not the control that's so hard, it's the fact that we really don't have the sheer number of crew needed. It's almost enough to make me wish we could recruit some Travelers from home. They seemed to do fairly well at running ships."

"Think Sheppard could swing it?"

"Don't know, might want to ask him."

Abby grinned, "Sounds good to me, besides the sooner I'm out of here the better."

Gabrielle sat down in her chair behind her desk, she was relieved to be back in Atlantis and doing something as mundane as dialing her mother for a chat on the phone, granted it was a magic phone but that was fairly mundane these days. "So mom how are things going back home?"

Willow held up the vidphone so she could get a decent look at her daughter, "Not too bad, Hermione and Harry are making lunch, I just got back from dropping off another slayer with the council back in the original dimension. I figure I'll take a break from collecting for a while and work some more on the genetic research with Lexie and see if there is a way to speed up the process for giving your grandparents bodies."

Gabrielle grinned, "That would be great, hopefully we can figure out something. So any luck talking Clark into giving us a copy of the Kryptonian database at the fortress?"

Willow chuckled, "I'll ask Chloe to work on him some more, if nothing else maybe Raisa can talk her dad into letting her borrow a copy. Why does it matter so much?"

"I'm interested because Kyptonians seem to have a better understanding of stuff that boarders on magic than the Alterans or the Asgard for that matter. As I don't have access to the Nox's data I'm left with trying to assemble the best of everything we have."

Willow sighed, "I'll ask Clark about the database but don't hold your breath. And when are you coming home anyways?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Not sure, we have a couple more pieces to acquire before we can wipe out the wraith. Like finding out exactly where the Asgard in this galaxy are and acquiring their technology. Not to mention the ship filled with sleeping ancients that I wouldn't mind collecting. If for no other reason than studying the virtual reality technology. Or at least having Lexie take a look at it. Because honestly it seems like a perfect way to train pilots."

"You're insane you know that right?"

"Yeah mom, I know."

"I'll be home when I'm home. Probably another two weeks. Just think of it like camp."

Willow chuckled, "Like camp eh? Well camp has parent night, so guess that means I get to come and visit and see what you're working on."

"That could be fun. Alright I love you, I have to get back to work now." She smiled as her mother blew her a kiss as she closed the vidphone.

Rose groaned happily as Gabrielle's fingers kneaded the stiff muscles on her shoulders, "So how did the chat with mom go?"

"She wants to come and visit, see the sights and such things. Possibly take a stab at working with some of the tech. I think she just misses us."

"Well we haven't exactly been around that much lately, too busy with projects and things. You can't blame the moms for trying."

Gabrielle grinned before working her fingers slowly down her sister's back. "So now that we're well on our way to destroying the wraith. What do you want to do?"

Rose grinned as she stretched her oiled limbs out, "Get Taika to work on her backrubs some more." She chuckled, "Oh you're being serious. Let's see, I wouldn't mind rescuing the ancients, though I don't think we are quite ready to be sent back to earth yet. We should probably do something about the Asgard/Vanir creeps here before we leave as well."

Gabrielle nodded, "Any suggestions other than sneaking aboard their ships and having Morrigan and Sarah kill them all?"

"I'm sort of a fan, besides we need to secure the Attero device's site before we worry about the next step of the process anyways. Hopefully with any luck the Vanir won't have found the site yet in this world and we'll be able to get to it without worrying about the them. Though there is another angle to test out."

"What's that?"

"Well you'll need test subjects if you want to make sure the process works once we get a viable body for them to transfer into."

Gabrielle grinned, "That's a touch evil but hey they sort of deserve it considering what they probably did to countless humans over the years. Anything else?"

Rose frowned, "There is one thing, but I don't see how Rodney would go for it, well maybe him but probably not Jack."

"Oh?"

"I'm thinking we should make a replicator." Rose winced when Gabrielle dug her fingers in a touch to deeply.

"What? Didn't we just spend the whole day getting rid of the Asurans?"

"The Asuran's yes, but well Rodney mentioned something about F.R.A.N. today that gave me an idea."

"Fran?"

"Yeah it stood for Friendly Replicator Android. Basically there is a nanite construction table stored in Altantis. Rodney used the one back on his Atlantis to create a friendly android that didn't have anger management issues nor did it have the same levels of arrogance as the Asurans."

"Provided for a second that we could actually get people to agree to that, what's the point?"

"It might be just me but I think it might be nice to have a non replicating android scientist around that could survive for millennia inside a time dilation field on fast forward."

"Oh."

"We have how many worlds' worth of tech sitting in storage? It would take hundreds or possibly thousands of years to piece them all together and figure out exactly how everything fits together and what exactly works in this universe. Not saying that we give up, but it might be good to have a base of operations that can produce ships faster than the Wraith."

Gabrielle grinned, "You know, when you put it that way, especially if we used a bunch of Lexie's other robots for ship creation… I might actually get my ship designed and built before I'm too old to care."

"So is that a go mission commander sir?"

Gabrielle swatted her sister's behind. "Yeah yeah, you want to play first or do you want to run off and ask Rodney about it?"

Rose grinned as she rolled over onto her back and spread her knees, "Maybe just a bit, besides unless I want Rodney distracted as all hell I need a shower anyways, might as well make it worth it."

Gabrielle grinned as she got to work with her hands.

Dawn smiled as she walked up to the door to Adam's apartment, she was a day early to pick her sister up from her trip back to visit Adam, but figured it wouldn't hurt to surprise them and spend the night with some of Buffy's friends and have some Pizza and beer, that is if Buffy remembered she was an adult and had been for a number of years. She fiddled with the bar mug she had brought as a present for Duncan, she had acquired it at a pub in Scotland when she had been running around the new world they were exploring, she had thought he might get a kick out of seeing something from the old country, even if it was from a century before his birth it was close enough. She grinned as she rang the doorbell. The grin slid off her face when the door opened and revealed a startlingly familiar blonde girl holding the door open, the mug fell from her suddenly numb fingers and shattered on the ground forgotten, "Tara?"


	36. Moving on with Life

Raisa sighed as she reached for another crystal drive and connected it to the cobbled together interface device for the fortress's computer network. She still wasn't sure why she was wasting her vacation on this slightly boring task, well okay she knew why, it was because her dad didn't want to waste his time and didn't exactly trust anyone else to have access to the fortress. It was after all the last connection they had to their blood heritage. Not only that but it was cold enough to make most people extremely uncomfortable for any length of time and well the sick amounts of money Gaby offered didn't hurt. She was slightly annoyed that they couldn't just network the database with Gaby's computer in the Nexus but Gaby didn't exactly trust the fortress's A.I. so they were resorting to making non-changeable copies and then running them through a series of Alteran inspired programs that were designed to strip the data of anything that didn't belong. How it did that she had no idea, though once she got access to Gaby's mainframe she was going to figure it out as soon as she could.

She figured the other reason besides being available that she had gotten the job dumped on her was because her father wanted her to actually read through the database while she was poking around and increase her understanding of science. Not that she could blame him, what with all the advancements the people of earth had made in the last decade or so. It wasn't quite to the level of hover cars but give it a few more years and that might not actually be too far fetched. Still if not for the increasing amount of video surveillance around the world that was making it increasingly difficult to have a secret identity she might have refused, but as Gabrielle had traded her father several magical rings designed to make their users undetectable to any type of camera as well as brief periods of actual invisibility she was stuck working on the boring job of changing crystal memory drives every so often.

She smiled as she glanced around the icy Fortress, there was something relaxing about being away from the sounds of the city. It didn't hurt that Illyria was taking the munchkins of destruction for the week. She wasn't sure if you could still call them munchkins at five and a half but figured the title still fit. She sighed, it wasn't that they were bad children, especially for genetically engineered weapons of destruction, it just took a lot of attention to keep the Neo-Iczel kids from wandering or getting into trouble. Not to mention keeping them from showing off their powers in front of strangers. It wasn't that she didn't like them it was just that sometimes she wasn't sure how Gabrielle had talked her parents into adopting them. Still even the fulltime babysitting wouldn't have been so bad if the five of them were easier to tell apart. She grinned, maybe after she got done with the computer backup she could dump the kids off with the twins for a while and take some time to spend with Gaby, she sighed, that is if she had any of her vacation left when the copying was done. She glanced over at the display on the drive, "Fifteen percent, going to be awhile." She glanced at the stack of blank drives, she knew she should be looking over the information but as she was currently downloading the Kryptonian flora section of the database she didn't really see how it was all that relevant being that they were all extinct. She grinned as she pulled out her personal laptop and started looking through the home movies Gaby had sent her.

Tara Maclay blinked as she opened the door to reveal Dawn, she barely had time to get out, "Hi Dawn," before the afore mentioned girl was sailing through the air at her. She wasn't sure if she should be smiling or wincing at the force with which Dawn was hugging her. She was fairly sure that she shouldn't be noticing how much Dawn had grown in the chest department since the last time she had seen her. She as best as she could she walked backwards with the Dawn like creature clinging to her enough so that she could use a foot to swing the door shut, she was fairly sure that she didn't want her neighbors to see or hear the upcoming confrontation. "Can I breath Dawn?"

Dawn reluctantly let go of Tara, she wasn't sure how it was possible but the girl standing in her arms was Willow's Tara, she just knew it. She wasn't sure how she knew but she knew… Which didn't make any sense as she had seen her body. "You died."

Tara sighed, she wasn't sure how she had been expecting the eventual confrontation to go but at least she wasn't being staked yet. "I got better?" Okay that sounded lame even to her ears, "Maybe… maybe you should sit down and I'll explain."

Adam winced as he walked into the room with Buffy on his arm as he noticed the two girls hugging each other, "This is going to end badly."

Buffy sighed, "You think?"

Dawn glanced up at Buffy then back at Tara then at Buffy, "You knew…" Her face started to fill with furry as she glared at Buffy, "All this time, and you knew, how could you?"

"Dawn, we… we didn't mean to hurt you, or Willow… it's just complicated."

Dawn glared, "So uncomplicated it."

Tara sighed, "You know about immortals yes?"

Dawn glanced at Adam, "Yeah, what's that…" She glanced at Tara and finally noticed that she looked the same as the picture from shortly before her death that Willow had on her wall. Which according to everything they could tell about the timelines between the worlds was about fifty years, "oh…"

Tara smiled, "Yeah, oh sums it up rather nicely."

"So have you?" She drew a line across her throat.

"A few, which… I didn't know how to tell her. And then I found out that she was married."

Dawn blinked, "So?"

"I didn't want to hurt you, and I didn't want to hurt Claire either."

"So she's your?"

Adam grinned, "I believe the term is on again off again fuck toy." He winced when Buffy hit him in the shoulder. "Ouch."

"Whiner."

Tara sighed, "Not the way I would have put it, but guilty as charged."

Dawn looked around, "So where is she?"

"Taking a vacation with her uncle Peter."

Dawn sighed as she flopped onto the couch, "So how long have you known her?"

"It will be our fiftieth anniversary next week, well that is if you include the time we've been together and not the time we have actually been married."

Buffy sighed, "So where does that leave us?"

Dawn sighed, "I don't know… Willow's… I don't know."

Tara sighed, "It wasn't… I didn't mean. I've been trying to figure out how to tell her a for a while now."

Dawn frowned as she glanced around the room at the concerned looking faces, "What's up?"

Adam frowned, "If no one else is going to say it, I will. Some moron spilled the beans on immortals to the networks. Not only was a quickening caught on tape, what's worse was that it was at a live government conference. The government passed some new legislation that makes it a beheadable offense if you're an unregistered immortal, it goes into effect next month."

"That's insane…" Dawn frowned, "How the hell?"

Adam sighed, "Oldest sin in the world, greed. I doubt it will hold up in the supreme court but that doesn't help much right now. I'm fairly sure that a head hunter paid off several members of congress, and well if we register there is nothing stopping the government from turning us into lab rats and if we don't there is nothing stopping them from killing us when they find us. Now that people know about us, it's getting extremely difficult to hide. Records are being searched, rewards offered. Hell just last month a school teacher was killed by a mob because she aged well."

Tara nodded, "That's why we asked Buffy to come for a visit."

Buffy sighed as Dawn glared at her, "They want to emigrate worlds."

Dawn blinked, "You know… there is no way I'll be able to keep this from Willow. Do you still…"

Tara sighed, "Do I still love her?"

Dawn nodded.

"Yeah, but… it's been a lifetime… and I didn't expect to survive all these years… I didn't expect Willow to… she's going to look the same isn't she? I don't want to hurt her… or you."

Dawn snapped out, "A little late for that. You were dead, and, and you, how could you not tell us?" She sniffled as she wiped at the tears streaming down her face even as she glared at Buffy, "You knew, all this time… and you knew? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Buffy sighed, "I don't know, it's been a long time. I remember being shocked and relieved to learn she was alive, then I learned that she was immortal. I wasn't sure how Willow would take it. I didn't want her to go off the deep end again, by the time… look by the time it would have made sense to say anything it was too late."

Dawn sighed, "This is not how I expected things to go."

Adam looked rather uncomfortable, "This isn't exactly how we expected things to go either. But that doesn't change the fact that, look I still have to ask, do you have a place for us?"

Dawn nodded, "Yeah, I'm not going to leave you to the wolves just because of a cluster fuck and an idiot sister." She glared at Buffy as her sister started to open her mouth, "Don't even start about my language or I'll leave you here."

Tara wiped away a tear, "So can Claire and Peter come as well."

Dawn shrugged, "It's not like we have a shortage of space."

Willow glanced in the mirror again as she fixed her hair. "What do I say?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, she knew that Willow was a bit nervous about Tara's upcoming visit, but fussing with her hair again and again wasn't going to make it better. "Start with hi, and go from there. It seems a bit more polite than, Hello love, I want to shag you now."

Willow blinked and looked at Hermione in shock, "Huh…"

Hermione grinned, "Hey you were paying attention to what I said. While the hello love crap might work for Spike, you should just be yourself, I'm sure things will work out." At least she was hoping things were going to work out. She knew how much Willow loved Tara, even after all these years. She was just hoping that she didn't get her heart broken. "Just get down to the portal room. Dawn said they were going to be there within the hour."

Willow nodded, "Thanks, sorry I'm a spaz."

"We're used to it."

"Hey now."

Hermione chuckled as she ushered Willow out of the bedroom and down the hall.

Breena smiled as she looked over the computer generated specs for the spacecraft Rodney was redesigning. While he had started with the same basic layout as the puddle jumper she could tell as she looked over the plans that it would be a touch longer than the regular jumpers. According to his ranting it was better designed for carrying troops, she wasn't really sure if that was the case or if it was just bluster on his part, but he had worked a short ranged hyperdrive into the design, that while incapable of long range flights without burning out could at least 'limp' the ship to the next nearest gate at a decent speed, which, considering how often the away teams got stranded, was probably a good thing. She glanced over at Rodney, "So how is Sophie working out?" She unlike a number of the stargate team members wasn't really bothered by the idea of a replicator, or at least one that couldn't actually replicate itself, after all she had grown up with any number of androids and alien races running around back on her home world.

Rodney glanced up from his tinkering, "The Series One Prototype Hyper Intelligent Engineer is working out fine."

She stuck her tongue out at Rodney, "You know you can just call her Sophie right?"

He huffed, "You seem in a hurry to forget what she is."

"You're just grumpy because she reminds you of Fran, and we're sending her on a long term mission."

"Yeah a mission that's going to take years from her point of view."

Breena smiled, "I didn't know you cared."

"I just don't want her going rogue with the combined knowledge of half a dozen of the greatest civilizations to ever exist in any universe."

Breena shrugged, it didn't take a telepath to tell that Rodney was more worried for her than about her, though she was one, "I understand the concern, especially considering your past experiences with the replicators. But that doesn't mean that all android "life" are evil homicidal crazies."

He sighed, "I just wish I could be there to work oversight."

"Being that you would be like a hundred or so by the end of the test run…"

He glared at Breena, "I'm not that old, and besides the first test run is only supposed to be fifty years. Besides someone should be there…"

She chuckled, "Well you could always lock yourself in stasis and interact with them via the artificial reality environment onboard the Alteran's stasis ship."

Rodney blinked, "That…that's genius." He started frantically typing on his computer.

Breena sighed, she felt like waving her hand across his face but knew that she wouldn't get much response so she let it go. "So much for sanity." She frowned as she headed off to get something to eat.

Samantha Carter blinked in shock at Teal'c, "So when were you going to tell us?"

"When you mentioned it."

She felt a touch faint as she flopped down into the newly discovered time jumper's seat for support. "The temporal… I can't believe we… why didn't you tell us?"

"I do not believe telling you would have solved anything. I was also told not to say anything by you or mention anything about your visit unless you mentioned it first."

Samantha frowned, it had just been an off handed comment about using the time jumper to go back and rescue Thor that had caused her friend to stiffen slightly. Anyone else it wouldn't have been noticeable as more than a slight reaction but anything that caused her near fearless friend to blink was worth looking into. "What did we do?"

Teal'c smiled, "What we do, save the day. I can tell you the date, and the time, other than that…"

Carter nodded, "Other than that the plan has to be mine."

"I believe so."

"That's a lot to think about, I need to talk this over with one of the people in charge."

Teal'c smiled as he watched Carter leave, things were progressing much as he expected.

Gabrielle smiled as looked up from her computer as she heard someone step into her office. "Heya cutie, wasn't expecting you for several days yet." It had been a busy last couple of days, and she was rather glad for the distraction.

Raisa grinned, "The downloading went faster than I thought."

"So how long until all of the drives are downloaded?"

"Actually not that long, I dropped the last of the drives off with Breena and Sophie, I think… Sorry my mind was on other things." She smiled as she looked Gabrielle over.

"I bet, and yes, Sophie is going to be our information compiler."

"I've got a few days of vacation left, can we have at least one day without having to talk about work?"

Gabrielle smiled, "Sure, I've got at least a day before Sam needs my help copying her alternate self's memories and cloning her other self, let's go kitty-nap Abby and steal some whip cream from the kitchen."

"I'm fairly sure I don't want to know about that first part, but the second sounds like a plan."

Sophie frowned, she was working on using her more human facial expressions and a frown seemed called for. She was currently trying to sort through enough of the database to figure out the best way to have Breena's droids start working on the construction of the facilities that would house her and the research team. It wasn't that it was an impossible amount of data to sort it's just that she wasn't sure what the couple of researchers that had volunteered to go with her would want. She blinked before realizing that it was probably better just to ask and then have the droids start. They could always change things once the program got running.

John Sheppard looked askew at the shrinking moon his team had just dropped the construction droids off at. It was as far as he was concerned the perfect place to have the research lab, a barren atmosphere-less moon that orbited a planet with a barely useable environment, albeit one with a stargate. He was just happy that the moon had no way off it other than spacecraft. He glanced at Rodney, "So how much time do you think they'll need?"

"It shouldn't take them long at all to activate the time dilation field, after that we should see the base grow at an almost alarming rate."

"How vast is the difference in time?"

"About an hour our time for a year their time."

"How come it's not more?"

"The greater the dilation, the greater the energy requirements. The other John wanted a risk assessment on the site before we committed to using a Z.P.M., besides I want to see what the construction bots can do in a year and then figure out where to go from there."

John nodded, "How come one of the other tech's couldn't fly them here?"

"I wanted to make sure the time dilation device was calibrated properly. You can't tell me you're not the least bit curious?"

John shook his head, "How long are we stuck here?"

Rodney shrugged, "I don't know, shouldn't be more than a couple of hours."

John glanced at the spot on the moon that was quickly becoming a small sized spaceport. "Okay that is amazing, it's like pushing fast forward."

Rodney checked his sensor readings again, "Looks promising, now all we can do is wait."

John glanced at Sophie, "So how soon do you want to go down?"

Sophie shrugged, "Not until they have the basic lab built and all of the computers operational. That should take a couple of hours. Then I'll start going through the data and sorting it. After that I'll start testing things and trying to figure out the best way to mesh the various technologies we have access to."

Rodney nodded, "You'll send status reports?"

"Yes, short ones, every month. That should allow you plenty of time to read the reports and send a response."

John frowned, "That's less than five minutes to read the reports and get them back to you in a timely manor. How long are you expecting to keep that schedule up?"

He frowned, "Well we shouldn't need more than several hours worth to make sure things are set up well."

John sighed, "I knew I should have stuck with transporting the various scientists on collecting missions."

Rodney chuckled, "Just keep an eye out for Wraith or other things."

John sighed, "So what happens if the Wraith come?"

"Pray that doesn't happen until they get weapons manufactured and possibly a couple of ships built."

John turned to look at Sophie, "That is the first priority yes?"

"The droids should have the mining operations well underway, so yes a couple of ships for defense is the first thing I'm going to have the shipyards work on. After that I'll probably work on combining and upgrading the ship designs we have and see how good I can make the ships. But that can probably wait until we get the spaceport sealed and are able to pump in breathable air."

John chuckled, "That tends to help with letting the rest of us help."

Sophie smiled, "Yes, don't worry we'll get things sorted out before too long."

Rodney glanced down at his computer as it beeped, "The droid's are saying that they are ready for you Sophie."

She nodded, "I believe wish me luck, is the correct phrase?"

John grinned, he had a feeling that the newest member of the expedition would work out just fine.

Sophie glanced around the room at the new spaceport, while it didn't have air yet, most other systems were operational. She smiled as she walked down the corridors on the way to what she was told would be her office. She wanted to get to work as soon as possible, though it was going to be difficult doing all of the things she was supposed to be doing in a timely manor at least she had time. "Let's see." She pulled up the specs for the basic ship that was in the database. "This will do, at least until I have more time, besides they can function as transport ships after the warships are built."

Rodney glanced down at the first progress report, "Oh, I think we're going to need crews sooner than we thought."

"How many ships is she turning out?"

"She's estimating one every two hours."

"One every two years? That doesn't seem like a lot."

"Apparently she doesn't want to crowd the surrounding space with inferior ships. Besides these are going to be decent sized ships thus needing a decent amount of crew."

John nodded, "When we get back, we'll have to try to figure out what to do for crew. We can't stay here forever."

Rodney blinked, "Why not? I like it here. Besides… we're going to be learning far more here for a while than we are back home."

John nodded, "So you still planning to take the first ship back to Atlantis and ask about permission to collect the people in stasis?"

"Look if you know a better way to train people, I'm all ears."

"Actually not really, I agree."

Rodney nodded, "Alright, so shall we get comfortable as the flood of messages starts pouring in for the next couple of hours?"

John shrugged, "Might as well."


	37. Table dancing scientists

Samantha Carter glanced back at her doppelganger, it was slightly disconcerting seeing a face that she hadn't seen in almost two and a half decades staring back at her.

For her part the teenaged looking Sam was slightly freaked to be looking at a face staring back at her that she hadn't seen in almost fifty years. It was enough that she wasn't sure she wanted to look in a mirror but at the same time, there was a part of her that wanted to run and grab a mirror just to reassure herself that she wasn't old anymore. It had been a shock when her younger double had shown up with Daniel, Vala and a girl they had never before seen and explained their offer.

She glanced out of the puddle jumper's window, she wasn't sure that she believed that she was a copy of the original Samantha, though truth be told if the strange girl's explanation was to be believed and the new memories weren't really giving her a reason to doubt them, then she was less a clone and more a fragment of the original two Samantha Carters given form. It was a bit confusing really, even for her.

Basically the girl had offered the other Samantha, one which had come from the future and traveled to the past in an Altantian time machine only to stowaway in the hold in stasis for fifty years so that they could offer her a chance to do a memory exchange with her other self, a chance to be given a new body. Of course she hadn't found out until after she had agreed and the strange girl had cast a spell and melded her with her younger version that magic existed, and was very, very real. Still it hadn't been a painful experience being joined to the other version of herself, sort of like recalling a number of old memories. It had been slightly odd separating, especially when she had looked at her old body and known that there would always be a small piece of herself missing. It had been hard leaving her old body there, but everyone had known it was the only way things would work. There had to be something for the time reversal to work upon after all. She glanced at her other self and could almost read the other Samantha's thoughts, she was fairly sure that she was thinking about all of the science and knowledge gained over the years in the ship, just as she herself was busy processing all of her other self's recent knowledge about dimension travel and magic, not to mention the knowledge of the fate of the battle with the Ori and current events.

It was going to take awhile to sort out, but she had survived fifty years trapped aboard a spaceship with little to do but research a way to save herself and with only a couple of people to interact with, she was fairly sure she could survive knowing there was another her doing her job back home. Still no one that at all understood how things were would be likely to begrudge her enough time off to sort through her life. Besides, when it came down to it, she at least had part of her team with her, unlike Jack's clone. She couldn't help smiling as she glanced over at a younger Daniel. "Somehow I don't think you looked this good when you were a kid."

A teenage Vala smirked as she reached out and pulled the teenaged Daniel into a hug, "Hey, no poaching."

The middle aged Daniel glanced over at his Vala before his face reddened, he wasn't sure the exact moment when he realized that he was starting to think of Vala as being his, it was a bit disconcerting to have fifty more years of memory suddenly floating around in his head than he was used to but oh the memories. He smiled as he glanced over toward the front of the ship where the Jack clone was chatting with Gabrielle while busying himself with piloting their way toward a planet with a stargate, "I think our good friend made some alterations and upgrades."

Gabrielle chuckled, "I figured there was no sense wasting all the hard work Daniel put in the last several years getting into shape."

The younger Daniel frowned, "You could have fixed my eyesight at least."

"And ruin your charming good looks?"

The younger Vala chuckled, "He's perfect."

Samantha glanced around the crowded shuttle craft, "Not to burst everyone's bubble but…"

The younger looking version of Samantha sighed, "We're messing around with time, and didn't manage to actually save more than a handful of the Asgard we came to save."

Daniel shrugged, "I wouldn't call it a complete loss, I mean after all we rescued fifty years of knowledge that would otherwise have been lost. Not to mention our other selves."

The younger Vala glanced up at the cockpit, "So what happens now?"

Jack smiled from his spot in the front of the ship, "We slip back to our proper time, then slip through the gate to the other world and drop our Asgard friends into a stasis chamber until our other friends can find a solution to the cloning issue."

Sam glanced at John, "You really think it will be that easy?"

John shrugged, "Probably not but hey I can hope."

Rodney glanced around the facility, it still had a half finished look in places, in other places it looked maybe not old but settled. Which when you considered that it had been in operation continuously for ten years it was perhaps a fair assessment. He spared a glance at one of the monitors that was displaying a modified hyper drive blueprint showing quite a few tweaks over the original. "Any luck with the wormhole-drive?"

Sophie shook her head slightly, "While I've managed in my spare time to work on a potential computer system dedicated to making sure the calculations are correct, I believe that the margin for error leaves the sane at home. I've had more luck with refining the super-gate technology back engineered from Ori tech. That at least might be a viable way to move ships. There is also the possibility of a completely separate transportation method from one of the other databases being viable, but as yet I've yet to find anything worthwhile on it's own."

Sheppard frowned as he looked around at the various full screens filled with technical data he only half understood, "On it's own?"

"Several of the various technologies have the potential to have information that could be used to streamline the process somewhat. For example the Kryptonian database had various advancements to crystal tech that should increase the efficiency of the hyper drives by two percent."

"That doesn't sound like a lot."

Sophie smiled, "Two percent here and one percent there, and eventually it adds up to a decent amount of time saved."

John nodded, "So how are the ships coming?"

"I've been tweaking the ship designs slightly, I think you'll be favorably impressed John."

John glanced at the monitors as Sophie brought up the design for a cloaking device that worked independent of the ship's shields. "Where did you find that beauty?"

"It's a mix of several technologies, but it serves a purpose. No more choosing between hiding and shields."

"What's the downside?"

"Large power consumption."

"How bad?"

Sophie pointed to several spots on the display screen, "Basically the ship is designed to be powered by eight ZPMs."

Rodney coughed, "What?"

"One for the front shields, one for the rear shields, one for the left side of the ship's weapons and one for the right. One for the cloak and two for the drive system and finally one for the rest of the shipboard functions, including life support, though I'm planning to have organic backups for the life support systems in the form of strategically placed greenhouses and such things. That would also allow power to be diverted to other systems in the event of an emergency."

"Just how big is this ship you're planning?"

"It's a battle fortress style ship, adequate for housing several thousand scientists or troops depending on the need."

"Just how much firepower does the ship have?"

Sophie sighed at their shocked looks as she pulled the weapon specs onto the screen, "Not enough?" She frowned, "I am planning on including several flight decks for jumpers and combat craft, do you think that would shore up the defenses?"

John blinked as he did some quick mental calculations on the yield of the various weapons Sophie was planning on installing into the floating battleship. While he couldn't imagine all of the weapons being needed, it was being unprepared for hell on earth that lost the ancients the war with the wraith in the first place. Besides Sophie had obviously worked hard on the various designs and he didn't want to make her feel like she had made a mistake, even if he thought it was slightly overkill, "Sounds like a good option, drones?"

"Of course, in addition to the number of other weapon systems they'll have one hundred drone ports on each side. One of the reasons we needed the extra power for the weapon's systems. They will also have their own drone manufacturing plant, no sense in being someplace and running out of ammunition."

Mckay's eyes danced with excitement as he thought about how useful one of these ships would have been against the Wraith. "It would have been nice if we could have had one of those the last time the wrath attacked earth. How is the rest of the database going as far as sorting and organizing?"

"Well enough, I'm working my way through the various genetic databases, looking for viable options for building an army capable of crewing the ships. Though I might look into sending at least a couple of the less advanced ships back to the alternate earth as trade items. That is of course if you can give me a hand working out how exactly to get the super-gates to jump dimensions."

John rolled his eyes, "What should I do while you're working on that?"

"Take a look at the various manuals for the ships, they shouldn't be too hard, they all use close to the same interface as the jumpers. I haven't exactly had the time or test subjects required to test any modifications on that system yet."

John blinked, "I'm sure the ones we have are alright for now. How soon before you're ready for the researchers?"

"I believe I've modified the ancient teaching devices enough to assure the children receive an adequate education should you decide on a clone generation."

"Not going to make any recommendations?

Sophie shrugged, "While I'm not human, I'm not Asuaran either, I don't have the same issues with aggression my counterparts did. I'm a scientist, I make the toys, I leave what to do with them to you. Though if you did want a tiny little suggestion, it would be to take one of the large transport ships and go collect the ancients in stasis as I would love to get my hands on the V.R. tech, not to mention have their help with several projects. Besides there is much less risk of them trying to take over anything as they aren't exactly capable of leaving the stasis pods."

John grinned as he looked up at one of the ships, "How about this one?"

Sophie smiled, "Sure, if you like it. It doesn't have a name yet, but I'm sure you'll fix that."

Several weeks later, Jack O'Neill couldn't help the smile that graced his face as he looked around the discussion table at Stargate command. His friends looked in better spirits than he remembered seeing them in years. "Vacation was that good?"

Sam blushed slightly as she remembered her night of naked table dancing in the other reality as payment for the memories of her alternate self, "Yes sir."

Jack grinned, "Care to share?"

Sam shook her head slightly embarrassed but sort of proud of the cheers she had received, "Not particularly, but maybe later over a steak."

Daniel chuckled even as he rested his hand on Vala's leg, "and lots of beer."

Jack glanced at Teal'c, "No comments?"

Teal'c smiled, "No."

He glanced at Vala, "How about you?"

Vala smiled, "Well… I might have a copy I'd sell you… two hundred U.S. dollars…"

Sam's face blanched white, "Didn't know there were cameras."

Vala chuckled, "Raven was nice enough to get me a copy."

Daniel chuckled even as he glanced pointedly at Vala, "Don't worry the tape isn't going to find its way into any official report, is it?"

Vala grinned and was about to say something when the door opened and revealed Major Davis, she quickly switched gears and continued as if she hadn't been talking about something that would damage her friend's career, "We did get some nice video of one of their new ships."

Jack nodded and then gestured for quiet as he glanced at the man standing in the doorway, "Yes?"

Davis glanced around the meeting room. "Any word on John Sheppard and his team?"

Sam nodded, "Sorry we were just about to get to that, they decided to finish up a few projects and come back."

Jack nodded, "Said he could get us a few more ships, but that he wanted to spend some more of his vacation time. Not a problem is it?"

Davis frowned, "Maybe, long ranged sensors are detecting a ship. It's massive, vaguely alien and headed this way."

Sam grinned as she pulled a flash drive out of her pocket and plugged it into her laptop, "Don't suppose it looks like this?"

Davis blinked as the image of the ship from the sensors appeared on the screen, "Yeah, how?"

"You might try hailing it before opening fire. Not sure what the ship's name is but it's class designation is McKay Hellraiser."

Jack frowned, "Hellraiser?"

Sam shrugged, "It's got enough weapons to take out a Goa'uld fleet by itself with little to no damage suffered, thus Hellraiser. If you're nice he might even lend it to Stargate command."

Davis blinked, "How the hell did he acquire the ship?"

Samantha chuckled, "He made friends with the engineer that designed it. Plus he helped her sort out an issue relating to… never mind I think that's classified."

Jack tried to hold in the laugh as Major Davis tried to mentally figure out how much security clearance he would need to get the answers he wanted. "Steak at O'Malley's?"

Sam chuckled, "Sounds like a plan."

The teenage Samantha smiled as she glanced out the window of Atlantis before glancing back toward her companion who was still sprawled on the bed, "So what do you think of the job?"

John O'Neill smiled as he glanced at the naked girl standing at the window, it had taken a while to conjure up the nerve to ask her out but from there it had been a fairly quick path to sharing a room and bed. "I could get used to certain things."

Sam chuckled, "True, but we only have a few more weeks here before we have to head back to the Earth Base."

He chuckled, "At least the fishing is nice."

Sam chuckled, at least some things remained the same. "I'm going to miss some of the people back at the SGC. At least we can write, send emails and such things."

John shrugged, other than Daniel he didn't exactly have that many people to bother with back in the other world. Still he figured he should at least try to cheer her up, "We can always hold more inter-dimensional barbeques." He chuckled, "Maybe we can get you and the other Sam to dance again."

Sam chuckled, "You're horrible. Loki must have screwed up worse than we thought when he made you, the old Jack was never this amusing."

He chuckled, "Rules and regulations, besides you never knew him back in the day. Speaking of clones, how well do you think your alt's report of a cloning accident will hold up?"

Sam shrugged, "It's not like it hasn't happened before. We have a nice new world where tired old military rules don't apply, she's welcome to her world. Besides, after fifty years mostly alone on a starship I'm not sure how well I would do slipping back into dealing with large groups of people."

John smiled, "I'm glad to have you here, now I just have to figure out if it's an abuse of power to order you back into bed."

She smiled, "Most likely but I'm not going to complain if you don't."

Dawn glanced at Claire then back at the couple curled up on the guest bed together, "You want to steal the sheets or grab the camera?"

Claire chuckled, "Well… you know where the camera is, and the bed sheets look fairly easy to steal."

Willow snuggled up against Tara as she whispered sleepily, "They're going to steal our blankets."

Tara couldn't help the silly grin on her face as she snuggled her face into Willow's chest, "Let them."

Dawn tried to suppress her giggles as she tried to shrug nonchalantly, "I guess let them sleep."

Claire chuckled, "Well judging by the sounds through the walls last night, they could use the rest."

Willow sleepily waved her hand at Dawn, "Out, don't come back without coffee."

Dawn chuckled, "Just for that." She leaned in and whispered something to Claire.

Willow frowned as she heard the other girl mutter something before leaving. She wasn't sure what Dawn had said but it sounded important. She was however prevented from thinking about it more as she felt Tara's hands sliding down her back. "Oh."

Tara lightly nibbled at Willow's breasts as she tried to keep her thoughts off of the black mess her conscience was making of things, mostly that small mental voice that was asking her what the hell she was doing having sex with Willow again. While it was true that her and Claire weren't exactly monogamous, there was a large difference between sleeping with some cute girl because you wanted a change of pace for a bit and sleeping with an ex love of your life.

Meanwhile a giggling Dawn and a smirking Claire finished tossing Willow and Tara's clothes in the laundry. "So how long do you think it will take them to notice?"

Claire shrugged, "A few minutes to a few hours, depending on when they get hungry."

Dawn grinned happily, she was feeling more than a bit horny after seeing Willow and Tara curled up with each other, "So did you see any girls you liked?" She was having fun getting to know Claire, as she was proving different than she would have guessed, but she figured that being alive for most of a century would do that to you.

Claire shook her head, she replied only half seriously, "I did notice the cute guy that was wandering around earlier, any chance he's single?"

Dawn chuckled, "Nah, plus you would have to fend off dozens of girls giving you the shovel speech if you went on a date with Xander."

Claire chuckled, "Alas."

"You don't seem too broken up about it, or even the fact that Tara is snuggling with another girl."

"I'm not an immortal like Tara, but I do heal and regenerate unnaturally fast and I don't really seem to age, at least I haven't in over fifty years. So I expect Tara and I will be together for a long time. With that understanding comes a certain amount of freedom to live. I have faith that she'll come back to me and I to her. If not then I wish her the best of luck as she would me."

Dawn nodded, "If you say it enough does it help?"

Claire nodded, "That and icecream."

"Rocky road good for you?"

"Yeah."


	38. Summoned

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters that people recognize from other places. Added to the list, I don't own Harry Dresden or Molly Carpenter nor Bob the skull, it makes me really sad about the last two… but probably for the best.

Rose tried to relax as Ivy pulled the brush through her hair, "What the hell am I supposed to do?" She glanced up from where she was sprawled out over Ivy's legs.

The bell's on Ivy's hat tingled as she stretched her shoulders further into the white leather couch, "You could actually wear some clothes… it might make things easier."

Rose grumbled, "It's the middle of summer and it's ninety out. So no, I'm not going to wear clothes just because Lily's grandmother is offended by nudity. Why the hell did she have to come anyways?"

Ivy rolled her eyes, "How do you think Lily feels?"

"Hah she caved even before she got back, perfect little angel. I should have just stayed away after learning that she was coming back."

"You don't mean that…"

"No but she's gah, why can't I just hex her until she stops bitching."

"She doesn't bitch, she just starts into a speech about decorum every time she seems you… not the same as bitching."

Rose sighed loudly, "Not what I want to deal with right now. That and people are still asking how the therapy is going."

Ivy set the brush on the table, "Would it kill you to talk about it?"

Rose rolled over on her back and looked up at Ivy's face, "If I talk about it, then I'll have to deal with it, if I have to deal with it, then I might as well tell Gaby to deal with them."

Ivy tried to keep her eyes off her friend's chest, "I'm not sure that's such a bad idea."

Rose blinked, "What? Aren't you supposed to be the voice of reason?"

Ivy shook her head, "I'm just a kid, what do I know." She leaned in and sniffed at Rose, "Other than that you need a shower."

"Fine." She chuckled as she rolled off the couch and headed for the bathroom.

Ivy smiled as she watched her friend's naked behind leave the room.

Rose sighed as she slipped into the shower stall and turned on the water. "Maybe if I ask the moms they'll have something I can do rather than hang around base, hell I'd even willingly track down Andrew and bug him on his latest assignment, anything to keep Mrs. Weasley from complaining." She grabbed the soap and started running the slightly abrasive soap over her arm pits. "Should have asked Ivy if she wanted to scrub me. Bet that would scandalize Mrs. Weasley more, old hag." She sighed as she started soaping up her hands before gliding them down to her crotch. "Okay, that's unfair Rose, but damn it, I just wish I wasn't here." She winced as she noticed the lights flicker and darken, "ah fuck."

The soap clattered to the ground forgotten.

Molly Carpenter glanced at where Harry was standing, at better than six and a half feet he was a very tall wizard, which helped to lend a cramped feeling to the basement. Not that it wasn't already cramped but as everything had been cleared to the edges of the already small room so Molly could use the basement's summoning circle, it made it a bit claustrophobic for her. Not that she normally had issues with that, but when added to the Bob the Skull's constant jabbering about his latest romance novel, it might be a little understandable that her nerves were on edge. That was also probably why instead of Rosi'alian which was the name of the minor information spirit she was supposed to be summoning she said Rose instead. Which she totally blamed on Bob for talking about the two dozen roses his current romance novel's character had given the stupid girl he liked.

Harry winced slightly as his apprentice said the wrong world, he was about to suggest she work on her concentration when suddenly all of the hair on his arms tried to crawl off his arms. It was a very disconcerting, albeit only slightly painful feeling. He had opened his mouth to warn his apprentice when the candles around the summoning circle flickered and died.

Bob whistled as he noticed the soap covered naked girl shaped creature that appeared in the summoning circle, "You're my new best friend."

Harry coughed, "Somehow I don't think that was exactly the information spirit you were hoping to summon."

"Summon?" Rose glanced at the metal wrought summoning circle then at the various people in the small room. "Ah hell." Her eyes shot toward the girl that was built like a schoolboy's fantasy of a Scandinavian exchange student. Hair the color of spun white gold reached just past her shoulders, the tips having been died a variety of different colors the most notable being purple. The piercings on her face while not normally her cup of tea were giving her interesting ideas for what to do with her tongue. "Can I have her?"

Harry shook his head, "No."

Molly blinked, "Ah what type of spirit are you?"

Rose raised a hand and pressed it against the invisible barrier made by the metal circle on the ground. "You know, I hate these things. So ah why did you summon me?"

"Ah, sort of Bob's fault. He distracted me."

"Erm sorry but Bob is?"

"The skull."

The motes in the skull's eyes flashed almost angrily, "I'm an information spirit, not a skull."

Harry frowned, "So what's your name?"

"Rose S… hey aren't you supposed to already know that?"

"It was worth a try." He wasn't sure but the girl was either an extremely good actress or wasn't exactly sure what was going on, which was more than a bit strange as he was fairly sure that he had seen a slight amount of resistance when she had touched the edge of the circle. He glanced away as the girl folded her hands across her stomach as it did interesting things to the girl's perky breasts.

Rose frowned, "So what do I call you?"

Molly glanced at Harry, she knew she wasn't supposed to give her full name but well Molly wasn't really part of her name so it didn't exactly matter. "I'm Molly and this is Harry."

Rose glanced at the dripping water pulling on the ground under her, "Alright so I don't suppose you have a towel I can use?"

Harry frowned, "So you can what use it to pull one of us over the circle?"

Rose sighed, "Fine, never mind." She gestured to herself and used a touch of magic to cause the water to fall off her body and splash on the ground. "So what do you want to know?"

Harry's eyes narrowed, "What no threatening, no whining about releasing you?"

Rose shrugged, she didn't exactly want to go home right now and wasn't exactly sure she could, even had she wanted to. The warding circle looked extremely well made. "I've got time, so ask your question and I'll set the price and perhaps we can make a deal."

Molly glanced at Harry, "So…"

He glanced at the girl in the summoning circle then back toward his apprentice, "Up to you."

Molly nodded then reached over, grabbed a piece of paper off the desk with a pair of tongs and passed the piece of paper through the circle.

Rose frowned at the paper before deciding that the humans were just jumpy. She looked it over and blinked as she realized it was in an obscure demon language, fortunately for her one she recognized. "So you want me to translate it?"

Molly nodded, "If you can."

Rose grinned, "I can translate it. I'm not exactly sure how this works, but I suspect you're supposed to offer me something in exchange."

Molly glanced at Rose, "What do you want?"

Rose chuckled, "Let's see, how about Tuesdays?"

Molly choked, "What?"

Harry watched the girl in the circle grin, he was fairly sure the girl was joking but only sort of, it probably wasn't a good idea to make such an open ended deal, "Ah, that's not exactly a fair deal. Surely another spirit could translate the document."

Rose shrugged, "Perhaps, but if your information spirit couldn't what makes you think any common spirit would? So not Tuesday? What about your true love? First born?"

Harry shook his head, "No, and no."

Rose shrugged, "This is sort of fun. Let's see…"

Molly glanced at Harry, she was sort of curious if pizza would work for her as well as it seemed to for Harry, probably not but it might be worth trying. "How about pizza?"

"What type?"

"Pineapple?"

Rose shrugged as she shook the page, "Sure, I'll translate this for you for a pineapple pizza."

Molly nodded, "Alright fine."

Rose grinned, "Great, I missed dinner. Let's see, do you have a piece of paper I can write the translation on?"

Molly grinned as she used the tongs to hand the girl a blank piece of paper followed by a pen.

Rose glanced at Bob the Skull, "Your information spirit is a pervert isn't he?"

Harry sighed, "More or less yes."

Rose giggled as she worked on the translation, "Could be worse he could be a straight laced British butler type."

Molly headed for the stairs, "I'll go get the pizza."

Rose watched her climb up the stairs then whispered, "She single?"

Harry blinked looked at Bob and sighed, "He's never going to let me hear the end of this?"

"Of course not, can I watch?"

Rose shook her head, "No."

"So what are you?"

Rose shrugged, "Does it matter? Your apprentice summoned me, I'm not exactly able to break your summoning circle, and a cute girl is offering pizza to translate a page of demonic text. Does it really matter?"

Harry sighed, "Are you a demon? Or Faerie?"

Rose grinned, "I'm guessing I'm supposed to trade for those answers. What are you offering?"

Harry sighed, this was one of the down sides about not having the girl's full name, there was only so much he could do. "Perhaps a trade of information?"

"Do you have any memories of your apprentice naked you want to share?"

He blinked, "Ah…"

"Oh… I'll take that for a yes."

"Harry, I'm not sure you should trust her."

He shook his head, "Not mine to trade."

Molly climbed back down the ladder, "Shouldn't be too much longer." She smiled as she glanced at the new girl's face.

Rose smiled as she looked at Molly's pretty eyes, "Fine, tell me a bit about the set up on this dimension then."

If Bob could have frowned he would have, this creature was acting strange if he didn't know better, "Oh fuck," he opened himself up to his magical senses. Everything in his vision took on a green cast, "Oh fuck me. Boss get rid of her, de-summon her before the council finds her and kills you and your apprentice both."

She felt a lurch as everything fell away. She found herself walking in a room filled with windows, each window looking out on a version of Molly. Some were bright, powerful champions of good, some weren't. Before she could figure out how she got there the day dream abruptly ended.

Molly collapsed to the ground, stunned as the soul gaze broke. "What the hell?"

Rose looked around furiously, she raised a shield around herself, "What the hell was that?"

Bob's spirit particles twitched, "She's from outside," He looked at where Molly was recovering from a soul gaze, "that… that shouldn't be possible."

Rose frowned, "Outside?"

"Outside, as in outside the world, from the far realms."

Rose shrugged, "What the hell was with the mirror world and the creepy house of Molly world?"

Harry was reaching for his blasting rod, "Soul gaze, but that shouldn't be possible, you need a soul. What type of creature are you?"

Rose looked nervously around, "Isn't every thing you summon from outside?"

Harry felt the fear crawling up his spine, last time something from outside had come up against him he'd almost died but she wasn't acting like he expected. "Fine, one memory for one answer."

Bob's eyes flashed, "Harry, don't be an idiot."

Molly glanced between Rose and Harry, fear grips everyone a certain way, some run, some fight and some sit there with a glazed expression as they try to sort out what they've seen. Though to be fair she hadn't exactly been expecting to see a burning star of green fire for the girl's aura and soul. Nor all of the images of naked girls that she had witnessed. She was a bit startled to realize that in the confusion she had dropped the summoning spell and that the girl was still standing there. She glanced up at the girl with fearful eyes, "Why are you still here? The spell is done, over, out of juice, you should be able to leave."

Rose rolled her eyes, "With the summoning circle charged?" She shook her head, "I'm afraid not."

Harry pulled his amulet off his neck and presented it toward the outsider, "Be gone."

"If you finish that with foul creature I'm going to be annoyed. Plus I translated, where is my pizza."

Harry glanced at his pentacle in confusion, "Shouldn't that do something to you?"

Rose rolled her eyes, "Why the hell would it? I'm getting really annoyed. And if you don't have that skull stop leering at me I'm going to shatter it."

Bob shut his mouth, after all maybe the circle could hold the outsider and maybe it was all just an act, but honestly he was fairly sure he didn't want to find out.

Harry glanced at the girl, she still looked human to him, if a rather angry decently pretty brown haired female type of human with goose bumps over her pale naked flesh. Not that he was paying much attention to the naked part, as the girl looked like she should still have been in high school. Not that he was exactly sure how old she was, but he figured he would error on the side of caution. He sighed when he heard a pounding coming from the door upstairs, "Don't kill anyone." He started up the ladder.

Rose sighed, "I don't suppose you have a towel or a robe it's rather cold down here."

Molly walked over toward her extra clothes bag, "Let me see what I have."

Rose frowned when Molly tossed her a shirt with writing on it and she read it, "Buffy the vampyre slayer? You've got to be fucking joking… Okay funny haha, where the hell are you guys." She turned back to Molly, "Who put you up to this… which one?"

Molly looked at the insane girl nervously, "What do you mean? You never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer? It was a great show. Even if the creator Mr. Wells is a total nerd."

Rose blinked, "Andrew Wells?"

"You've heard of him?" She really couldn't figure out how the outsider if that is what she was knew of a writer.

Rose rubbed the bridge of her nose, sighed and slipped the large shirt over her head. It wasn't perfect but it did help a bit with the cold. Or rather the whispered warming charm she cast on the shirt did. She sighed as her whispered fire charm fizzed as it touched the shield. She couldn't help thinking that she should bring a bottle of acid everywhere with her just to deal with this type of crap. "So I don't suppose you can let me out?"

Molly shrugged, "Do you promise not to hurt anyone in this house?

"If you let me go, I promise to not harm anyone in this house for a minimum of twenty four hours."

Molly nodded, "I'll talk to Harry about it."

Rose sighed as Molly left, she was really starting to hate summoning circles and crap like that.

Molly frowned as she dug out enough change out of her pockets to pay the pizza delivery man. "Thanks."

The guy frowned when the girl shut the door in his face without giving him a tip, he muttered "Bitch." as he headed back to his car.

Molly glanced at Harry, "So you think it's safe to let her out?"

Harry sighed, "Probably not but you're the one that soul gazed her."

"I wouldn't trust her in the girls locker room but other than a very intense green star for a soul she seemed nice enough."

He sighed as the doorbell rang, "This can't be good. Get the girl her pizza." He waited until Molly had vanished down the ladder to the subbasement before walking over and opening the door, "Yes?"

Carlos Ramirez frowned, "Yes? That's all I get? I travel half way across the world and that's what I get? Not even a hey do you want a beer? Or what brings you here?"

Harry shook his head, "Oh please, one little trip through the Nevernever and you don't have to deal with airport security. Don't give me that. As for receiving an invite you know be better than that."

Carlos Ramirez shrugged as he stepped across the threshold and into the apartment. "How about that beer?"

Harry chuckled as he walked over to the old fashioned ice box and pulled a beer from the depths. It wasn't that he really wanted a warden in his home right now but Carlos was a friend of sorts and it would look fairly strange to ask him to leave. "So what brings you by?" He passed the beer over.

"Had business in town, thought I would stop by, you seem a bit jumpy though. Had any more red vampire attacks?"

"Little things, nothing to horrible."

Carlos nodded his face grave, "So you wouldn't know what just blew out half of the council's wards in this city, say within the last hour?"

Harry was trying to keep from sweating as he watched his friend's face, "Could be the reds but I haven't heard anything. I'll keep my eyes out."

Carlos nodded, "Some of the council are mighty curious… Luccio gave me the heads up. I should be going though."

Harry nodded, "Thanks."

Carlos shrugged then downed the last of his beer in a gulp, "Anything you need help with just tell us."

"If I find out something…"

"I'll be the first to know, right." He glanced past Harry into the rest of the apartment. "If you do have anything you don't want the council to know about, you might consider moving it, sooner rather than later. Take care Harry."

Molly glanced at Harry when he finally made it down the steps. She gestured to the half empty box of pizza, "She cheated, said that I had promised the box for one page."

Rose smiled, "Hey what do you expect? I mean it's my job to get the best type of deal I can right?"

Bob's voice floated out of his skull, "I like her."

Harry sighed, "We've got bigger issues. Something went wrong with some of the council's wards in the city. Probably in relation to your friend here. Any luck banishing her?"

Molly sighed, "Nope."

Rose glanced up from her continued translation work, "You know, I am right here. Anyways, you're going to want to know what this document says. It's a ritual, a ritual that could black out a city in preparation for final night."

Harry blinked, "How do I know you're telling the truth? What does the ritual involve?"

Rose smiled, "Well as I'm fairly full on pizza, let's see how about the girl's clothes."

Molly blushed slightly, "Hey now."

"Fine, just spring me from the circle and I promise I'll be on my best behavior."

Harry raised his blasting rod up, he wasn't entirely sure it would do anything but he wasn't completely sure it wouldn't either. "Go ahead and take down the ward Molly."

Molly carefully took down the ward circle's magic before stepping back.

Rose relaxed as she stepped over the metal ward. "Much better, I would say boo, but I'm sure you would blast me out of pure spite. Can we go someplace warmer?"

"Sure, up the ladder with you both." Harry reached over and snagged Bob as Molly hurried up the ladder.

"You just want to see up my shirt. Naughty, naughty." Rose scurried up after Molly. She glanced around the living room and noticed all of the candles scattered around the room, "No lights? You're taking this whole wizard thing a bit too seriously aren't you?"

Molly shrugged, "Tech tends fry around us."

Rose blinked as a very large dog walked in from what she could only assume was the bedroom. "Huh, next you're going to tell me that's his familiar."

Mouse grinned at the young witch in front of him before he shook his head in a manor that might have said, "Nah, he's my familiar."

Rose chuckled, "Okay, okay I see." She held her hand out to Mouse, "If you want to sniff." She paused for a second, "Well you are a dog." She chuckled, "Not my fault. So are we good?"

Mouse tromped over to lick her hand before padding over to the couch and sitting down.

Rose rolled her eyes, "Fine, I'll pet you."

Harry frowned, "You always that good with animals?"

She shrugged, "Nah, just the smart ones." She glanced over at where the overly large cat called Mister was laying down in the corner. "My sister is the cat lover."

Harry glanced between Mouse and the girl on the couch, he hadn't found anything that could fool Mouse yet, so perhaps the girl was safe, though in his life safe was a relative term. "So what can you tell me about the 'demon' text?"

"Where did you get it?"

"Off a red court vampire."

"Courts?"

"Yeah, three types, white are like spirit vampires, black are like Dracula, and well the reds are demon's that can take a human form. Anyways one of them had that when I killed him."

Rose frowned, "Some rather dark magic, perfect for vampires, not too many other groups would want three days of darkness. Anyways second page is the list of ingredients. If you keep a look out for the supplies then you might be able to catch the one responsible."

Harry nodded, "So now that you're free are you going to head home?"

Rose shrugged, "Not really in a hurry to. My half sister Lily's grandmother is on the warpath about proper etiquette, not to mention bitching at me to find a proper boyfriend."

Molly frowned, "What's wrong with your current date?"

"She's a girl."

"Well that does tend to make things harder."

Rose chuckled, "Yeah, I mean it's not that I don't like guys, it's just that I like my girl and don't want to give her up. Why do people have to be so funny about relationships?"

Molly glanced at Harry, "No clue."

Harry sighed as he thought back on several of the past relationships he had had, "No clue."

Rose laid the translated pages on the coffee table, she turned and smiled at Molly as the phone rang, "Hopefully I didn't do too bad as a summon, next time perhaps you can be the one that just came from the shower." She turned to wink at Mouse, "I'll bring you a chew toy next time."

Molly smiled as the other girl vanished in a flash of green, "No one is going to believe us are they?"

Harry chuckled, "Not likely, I've seen a lot of strange things in my time and I'm not even sure I do."

Molly glanced toward the phone, "You going to get that?"

Harry sighed, "Probably should." He picked up the phone only to hear Susan Rodriquez voice on the other end, "They've taken our daughter."

Rose sighed as she reappeared in the shower only to find it still running and the water still nice and hot.

Ivy glanced up as a dripping Rose walked back into the room wearing a strange t-shirt that was also dripping wet. "Aren't you supposed to wait until you're dry to put on your clothes?"

Rose glanced at the snickering Harlequin wannabe Trixie, "Laugh it up girl, you're next."

Ivy barely had time to try to dodge off the couch before she felt herself being lifted by a gentle yet unbreakable force that proceeded to drag her toward the exit and eventually the pool.

Gabrielle snickered as a naked Ivy flew through the air and landed in the pool. She turned and glanced at Lenora and Lillian, "Eight?"

Lenora snickered, "The throw or the splash?"

"The splash of course."

"Maybe an eight point five."

Ivy sputtered as she adjusted her jester's hat, "Hey that was at least a nine." She started swimming toward the group.

Gabrielle chuckled, "Fine, I can see an eight point nine."

Ivy glared, "Everyone's a critic."

"So what are you in for?"

"That's almost a Xander worthy line." She shrugged, "Rose apparently wanted to toss someone in the water."

Lenora frowned at Lillian, "Because of course that makes perfect sense."

"She was being lectured by Mrs. Weasley again."

"Okay never mind, it does make perfect sense."

Rose scowled as she walked up to the spot on the back lawn where her sister's were sun bathing sans clothes, "So how come she isn't bothering the hell out of you?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "We have a glamour over the area."

Rose blinked, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you keep thinking that the problem should be solved not just avoided. I figure if we avoid her long enough she'll get bored and go bother Ron and William."

Lillian twitched, "It's almost enough to convince a girl not to shag the Weasley twins as that could lead to having her for a mother in law."

Lenora chuckled, "Still someone should tell her to chill out."

Ivy pulled herself up on the edge of the pool, she looked over the girls lounging, "So if you're done using me as a cannonball, I'm going to go find some girls for the water balloon party."

Rose waved her away, "Nah, go for it."

Lenora glanced at Lillian, "So, water balloons?"

Her twin giggled at her, "Sure why not."

Rose glanced at Gabrielle, "So you think if we had a nice large naked orgy of fun with all of the girls that she would finally get the message that we didn't need nor want her opinions?"

"More like heart failure."

"Damn, I think we would get in trouble for that."

"Alas." Gabrielle had a wistful look on her face as she gazed out over the pool.


	39. Españolas de muerte

Buffy glanced out the window and down at the courtyard where Dawn was currently playing a game of quidditch with several of the various children. "You think she'll ever forgive me?"

Willow shifted her position on the window seat so that she had a better view of the game. "Eventually, but she's looking back at things from the perspective of a teenager. It's always the end of the world."

Buffy shifted to give Willow a more comfortable seat, "It almost was several times."

"We were fools, charging head long into things." Willow smiled faintly. "Not that I regret helping, but looking back."

Buffy nodded, "We were lucky, I'm always surprised Giles didn't wear through his glasses."

"I heard he had a few pairs."

"That sneaky bastard," Buffy chuckled, "I should have known."

Willow leaned back against the wall and looked at her friend, "Not that I would trade this for anything," she used her right hand to gesture around the room. "But I miss the simple times. See vampire, scream, watch you stake vampire, go back home and party at the bronze."

"We could always pick a city and go cause some havoc."

Willow smiled, "Adam was a bad influence on you wasn't he?"

"Maybe a little, he's got definite skills in the bedroom."

She chuckled, "Yeah, yeah. If you want to know who has skills, Dawn and that tongue of hers."

Buffy scrunched her face up in disgust, "So didn't need to hear that. I mean I know you and her and…" She glanced at her chuckling friend, "You're evil, pure evil."

"So what plans do you have now that you're here fulltime?"

"I was actually sort of hoping to do some evil spirit hunting."

"Gabrielle mentioned that some of the abandoned sites are turning up haunted. Not that I blame them, but they probably should be put to rest. What made you think of that?"

"Adam and Daniel wanted to do some backpacking to look at a few more of the Native American sites before wild animals ruined them. I figure while Daniel and Adam are doing the watcher type stuff, Vala and I can slay some evil spirits."

Willow grinned, "We could use the help. Did you get a site list from Gaby?"

"A site list and several magical dusts and other assorted implements to hunt them. I know she's older than we were when we started fighting but it still seems surreal that your daughter is the one in charge of this part of the world."

Willow giggled, "Yep, my daughter the queen. It takes a bit of getting used to, at least she doesn't insist on us calling her, Her Majesty or some other silly title."

"Would you really?"

"Well no, but I would claim mother's exception."

Buffy shook her head, "I'm still surprised Rose didn't protest. I mean she's the one that can open the portals. Well her and Dawn."

"That's the other reason you're going off into uncharted lands with only a puddle jumper, a couple of anthropologists and Vala for company for the next however long, isn't it?"

Buffy sighed, "Yeah, well I'm tired of the silent treatment."

"Just give it a bit of time. Once things settle a bit, I'm sure she'll calm down."

"How's that settling?"

Willow shrugged, "Tara and Claire are helping with the survey work up north. They'll be at it for a few weeks then swing back for more supplies."

"How are you dealing?"

"It's weird. I mean I love Hermione and Dawn, but Tara is… she's not my world anymore, but damn the sparks when she does that special thing with her hands."

"I take it back, you bad, bad girl. So how's Dawn taking it?"

"Which part? The sex with Tara? She keeps asking for pictures, the dirty girl." She chuckled at the slightly ill look on her friend's face. "The having Tara back in our lives? Dawn's still a bit clingy. Sort of hoping she grows out of that part. It makes me think we need a counselor on staff."

"I can think of a few times it would have helped." Buffy shivered as she thought back to when she had to stab Angel and send him to hell. "Yeah, let's work on that."

"How's Hermione dealing?"

"She's good, worked out a schedule for … well making things work."

Buffy chuckled, "I would have never pictured you going for the watcher type."

"Laugh it up; you don't know what you're missing."

Buffy shook her head, "That's okay, no offense but anyone that my sister… yeah just no."

Willow chuckled, "Anyways, Hermione is busy distracting Dawn and spending time helping the twins work on their various projects. So who's flying?"

"Daniel, I offered but for some reason everyone thought it should be his turn."

Willow tried to conceal her smile by turning back to watch the game out the window. While Buffy wasn't the worst pilot they had, she wasn't the best either. Apparently, slayers could use the ancient devices but just didn't have the conscious control the magic users did, which sort of made sense if you thought about it. She was hoping at some point to see if Buffy could improve with enough training but no one wanted to ride in a jumper with her long enough to test that theory, something about hairpin turns and an insane need for speed. She would have to get Sheppard to try; people said their flying styles were similar. "Just be happy you can pilot the ships at all."

Buffy smiled faintly, "I still find it funny that the ability to use magic allows us to use ancient tech."

"I'm glad. Between the magic users and the very few people with the gene, we barely have enough pilots to meet the most urgent demands of the research team."

Buffy shrugged, "If they stopped whining so much about my flying…"

Willow chuckled, "It helps keep the various teams honest."

Buffy sighed, "I'm not that bad."

"Just keep telling yourself that."

"Fine, so what are you going to do with the rest of your day?"

"I might talk to Dawn about going off to find the next slayer on my list. Mostly I'm trying to dodge Rose and her complaining about Mrs. Weasley."

"How come Rose isn't complaining to official sources?"

"Because Gabrielle said that it wasn't her problem. According to her, there are no legal requirements to wear clothes; there is also nothing that says she cannot bitch about it. Free speech and all that. It's not quite to the level of harassment yet, so mostly we're dealing."

"So when are you and Gabrielle going to hash out the rest of the legal code?"

"As soon as Gunn gets back. He's working with some Malorian demons, back home, on some property disputes they are having with a group of warlocks."

Buffy frowned for a second as she tried to remember the particulars, "So what side are we helping?"

Willow shrugged, "The warlocks, they agreed to 'settle' things with that vampire gang in south America we've had trouble with if we took care of their demon issue. Besides one of the warlocks is family to one of the slayers down there."

Buffy nodded, "It got a lot more complicated when people found out vampires were real."

"It was bound to happen eventually. I'm just glad we got most of our support structure off world. Besides, I happen to like this world better."

Buffy nodded, "Helps when the government can't exactly freeze your holdings."

"So what about you?"

"I should probably finish packing."

Willow nodded, "I'll see you when you get back."

"Sure, take it easy on the new girl when you find her." Buffy smiled as she headed off to her room to finish packing for her trip. She thought it was nice to be back with friends but the number of people running around doing various projects that had little to do with her was driving her a bit insane. Her time with Adam had been a nice long break from slaying but damn she sort of wanted back in the game, even if it was just a ghost hunt while backpacking into the wilderness. She shook her head, "I'm insane."

Willow glanced up as Xander walked into the room. She smiled as she jumped at her friend. "Hey you're back. How did everything go?"

He smiled as he caught Willow and spun her around before setting her down, "Yep, just got back. Things went fine, stopped in and saw Giles as well. He's up to his elbows in old scrolls having a great time."

"Leo back?"

"Yeah, at least for a couple of days. I'm sure after Faith gets done hugging the stuffing out of him he'll make his rounds."

"Well he has been gone a few months."

Xander grinned, "We should have a large family dinner to celebrate. Besides we have visiting royalty."

She smiled, "Really?"

"Yeah, he finally convinced Arthur and Katherine to come for a visit."

"I can probably talk Sin into working something up. She's been dying to test out several of her new recipes."

"Sounds good. So how did the priest hunting go?"

"The inquisitor hunting went fairly well. Helen and I took out a number of them over in France, while they were trying to raise an army to send against England. We'd still be over there but Helen needed some attention from Gabrielle and I wanted to spend some time organizing things a bit more with Leo."

"How do you tell between the crusaders and the people gunning for England?"

He shrugged, "Carefully. Or at least we try."

Willow nodded, "You might want to talk to Jana, and see if she can loan you some of her girls to patrol the English Channel."

Xander nodded, he remembered the slightly bubbly water elf pokegirl that the kids had brought back on one of their trips. "Jana I remember, but she has people?"

Willow grinned, "Gabrielle set her and Natasha up with a couple of concealment items. They've been clearing out Spanish vermin from the Bahamas and surrounding islands. They send the Spanish and others they capture back to face trial. Some of the more intelligent and less dastardly ones get turned into wet lasses."

"So our group of sea elves are converted Spanish?"

Willow shook her head, "Actually most of them were mercenaries from various other places that signed on for work without knowing how bad the Spanish were. For the most part the Spanish they capture are serving as shark food."

Xander chuckled, "Poor sharks. I'll remind Leo to ask Arthur about hiring a patrol or two once Jana gets enough to spare. She's using them as pirates?"

"Pirate is such a nasty word, more of a state sponsored militia designed to keep her new land safe from Spanish idiots trying to rape the land of resources. She's got the support and permission of the natives."

Xander chuckled, "So we going to do the same with Hawaii and the rest of the nice vacation spots?"

Willow grinned, "Once we get enough girls, I think that's the plan."

He nodded, "I've heard it's a nice place."

"A bit too much sun for my taste."

He yawned, "I should probably go crash for a bit so that I'm awake when it comes time for the formal dinner."

She smiled, "Sounds like a plan, I'll go sort out the details."

Gabrielle glanced at the Elk as it crashed to the ground from the arrow lodged in its neck. She glanced at Arthur then Leo, "You didn't tell me he was that good."

"You didn't ask." Leo chuckled as he watched Gabrielle unstring her own bow. "Nice shot though."

Leo grinned as he glanced at Gabrielle, "So, I don't suppose you want to haul it back for us?"

Gabrielle glanced at the large creature they had been following through the woods for a while. "Not really but I'll manage. So how are things going in England?"

Arthur glanced at Leo before glancing back at Gabrielle. While he had gotten used to Leo's strange manor of dress, it was a more than a bit weird to see such clothes on a noble lady. He was considering protesting Leo's attempts to get his sister to do the grunt work when she simply gestured toward the fallen elk and raised her hand. He watched it rise off the ground and float several feet off the ground. "That's handy."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I didn't want anyone complaining about blood stains."

He nodded, "Things are going well. We're still working on our public relations campaign, trying to convince the fearful people that the pope cannot send them all to hell with a wave of his hand. It is frustrating, not to mention trying to make sure the various nobles are not plotting things. We have already had to pay a visit to one manor because of a refusal to pay taxes based on the pope's claim that the noble in question did not owe us anything. We had fewer issues than I would have guessed though, so it could have been worse. Best part is I don't have to listen to any long boring speeches about religion anymore."

Leo chuckled, "I'll have to remember to thank Rose for lending me Taika. I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't been able to sort through the paperwork and get things going smoothly."

Gabrielle nodded, "Glad that things are working out for you."

Arthur couldn't help but be impressed with the structures and flying carriages his friend possessed. While he doubted his friend would share the knowledge of such wondrous things, or even if he did that they would make sense, he was fairly sure that at least some of the basics could be taken back to England and used once he became king.

Gabrielle grimaced as Abby helped her into her new silk gown. 'Stupid requirement for looking presentable for the formal dinner.' Not that the crimson silk wasn't nice, it was gorgeous, but she didn't like having to dress in anything that required more work than simply pulling a dress over her head and maybe tying a sash. The dozens of buttons in impossible to reach places frustrated her, which was why Abby was currently helping her into the evening gown. That and she was keeping her from performing a social no-no and just walking to dinner in nothing but her birthday suit, something she had seriously considered when someone had offered her a period English dress to wear. Luckily for everyone, Abby had come up with the silk dress as an alternative that she would actually wear, mostly just to keep from hurting her feelings. "How much longer?"

Abby smiled, "If you stopped whining, we are almost done, then we have to do something about your hair."

Gabrielle clenched her fists and tried hard not to growl, "What's wrong with my hair?"

Abby adjusted her top hat, "Nothing honey, but… well it could stand to be put in braids."

Gabrielle sighed, "Fine."

Leo glanced around the large table, he was just glad that everyone was on their best behavior, including his normally tomboyish sister. He was just impressed that Abby had managed to talk her into wearing a dress and such a pretty dress at that. He tried and failed to keep a smile off his face, they were putting on a good show for Arthur and Katherine, but he wasn't sure how long everyone could keep up the illusion of being a "proper" noble house. He was personally glad that Giles had managed to stuff several of the seats with old watchers who actually did have some idea of what a formal dinner was supposed to be like. It helped with the presentation. While he wasn't all that comfortable lying, he did want to present a certain front to his friends. Mostly so that Katherine would feel comfortable. She had been a bit scandalized by his various girlfriends. Moreover, he admitted that he probably could have tried harder to fit in, but seriously, culture shock didn't even begin to cover the differences between their worlds. He was just hoping to make it out of the dinner without anyone starting a fight or causing a social situation. He was really hoping that no one mentioned their involvement in the mess with cleaning up the Spanish explorers in the Bahamas. Being that Katherine was from Spain.

Faith concentrated on polite conversation, it was amusing her greatly how hard some of the people were trying to find topics they could discuss around the outsiders. For her part she was concentrating on topics relevant to England, which meant that she was fairly happy when the dinner was over and the dance floor cleared because she had been almost out of worthwhile topics. She glanced at Willow, "So what do you think?"

Willow glanced toward the dance floor where Arthur and Katherine were enjoying themselves dancing, "I think that she's a bit young to be in the running for running a country. Hopefully Arthur has a few years to be prince still."

Faith shrugged, "Gabrielle isn't much older, and she's already a queen."

Willow rolled her eyes, "Technically, besides who would you rather trust?"

Faith chuckled, "I'm just glad that Leo has made friends."

"I wonder what they think of the music?" Willow glanced over toward the stage where a couple of mutant girls were playing Celtic music. Probably not exactly what they were used to, but it seemed to be music they could dance to.

Faith chuckled, "Don't know but I'm sure Leo will tell us about it later."

"Probably, I'm sure they will have many wonderful tales of Avalon to bring back with them."

"Probably."


	40. You did what?

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to real people any of the various characters have is either because the people of my fictional world have an analog in the real world and will thus only play a very minor role or is entirely in the heads of the readers. I mean no offense; I have tried to either use fictional sons or daughters of historical people or to make the various historical people as true to life as I can from the little I found on them.

Gabriel Martinez carefully slipped through the crowd as he made his way through the "streets" of Dungannon. While he didn't exactly fit in compared to the various Irish peasants milling around waiting to hear their king's speech, he wasn't too worried about being noticed as there were a number of foreigners around to hear the speech. Not that Gabriel could care less what the speech was about; it wasn't like he knew the local language all that well anyways. Mostly he was just here to do a job and leave, a job that he had been paid handsomely for. He smiled as he took the time to slip into the alleyway where he bribed one of the foreign traders to allow him to climb up on the old stone wall his booth backed against. He smirked as he pulled his arquebus from under his cloak. He carefully crawled along the top of the wall such that he could set up his shot, "May god roast your soul, you heathen scum." He smiled as he pulled the trigger.

Connor O'Neill didn't care that he was supposed to be inside arguing acceptable political reprisals against what they now knew were members of the church. The last two nights in his nightmares he had relived watching his grandfather fall after having his chest ripped apart by fell church magics. No longer would he stand by and listen to their poison and lies. He looked over the surrounding Irish lands from on top the castle walls. He glanced at the town where his troubles had started, from several miles away it was hardly more than a black stain in his vision. He was glad that he couldn't see the place his grandfather had fallen clearly. Part of him wished that it was raining and storming and tossing lightning from the sky to mark such a black day in his life, but the sky refused his wishes as there wasn't a single cloud in it. The other part of him realized that it was just as well. He glanced down at a large book filled with pulsating runes and maddeningly twisted script. As far as he knew the book had been old when his ancestors had come to Ireland. It was one of those things that no one in the family talked about unless they had to. Still he had some idea what it could do and he knew what he had to do, "I Connor O'Neill offer my life as blood price to the fae. I call on the fae to answer, to give me satisfaction."

He shivered as a cold voice whispered in his ear. "Blood price has been paid, your life we do not want son of Ireland."

"Then name what you want."

"We want you king of Tir Eóghan, to rescind the Bane of Iron."

Katherine wasn't sure where she was supposed to look as the night wore on and the clothes came off of the various girls around the bonfire. It was scandalous and yet the dances were oddly interesting. She was sure at least part of that was the wine talking. They had after a few dances inside moved everything outside so that everyone had a chance to dance, rather than just the relatively small number that could fit into the formal dining room. It was interesting to listen to the conversations as they shifted away from boring politics and onto other subjects. Still it was amusing watching everyone enjoy themselves. She couldn't see the various nobles from back home enjoying themselves quite this much. The selection of food was interesting as well. Fruits and vegetables that she had never seen, not to mention the strange deserts that made her mouth water. It had made for some rather interesting sampling, especially the wine, some of which was quite a bit different from what she was used to. She giggled slightly. She glanced around the bonfires and wondered how much of the dances were pagan prayers. She decided to just have fun and worry about things later; after all if the Lord Wizard said they were safe, then there was nothing for it but to enjoy herself.

Arthur chuckled as he watched his wife dance around the bonfire in delight. "So how often do you have a party like this?"

Leo chuckled, "A party fit for a prince? Not often enough. You'll have to come more often, gives us a reason to celebrate. Perhaps next time we might even invite some other nobles, if we can find ones that aren't so stuffy they can't enjoy themselves."

Arthur grinned, "I'll write up a list. The food is certainly better than some halls I've been to. I can see this being a popular location if you make it one. The ride to get here is a bit nerve-racking though."

Leo shrugged, "It could be worse, it could have been one of my sisters piloting."

Arthur chuckled, "Speaking of magical flying machines, I don't suppose I could talk you into flying us to my sister's wedding next month so that we could make a grand entrance?"

Leo chuckled, "You just want to impress the Scots."

Arthur grinned, "Damn right."

Leo nodded, "Still isn't Marian a bit young. She's only thirteen, and he's old enough to be her father."

Arthur shook his head, "Such is the life of kings, besides she's two years older than our sister Margaret who was the other candidate for marriage. Because of the troubles with the church father wanted to push a long term peace treaty through earlier rather than later with James." He smiled, "In case you didn't know, we royalty are always consumed with the need for an heir."

Leo sighed, "Yeah, I'll help you send her off. Besides that will give me a chance to see how the Scots deal with magic and witchcraft."

Arthur nodded, "So how do you think we should break it to Katherine that your sister's people are causing the Spanish issues?"

Leo blinked, "What?"

"Oh please, every time Katherine mentioned her homeland faces got tight and conversations shifted. I've known you for a while now; you get this look on your face when you're hiding something."

"Yeah, well several of our people objected to the Spanish's policies concerning the indigenous people over here. Thus we lent aid."

Arthur nodded, "So is England going to have trouble?"

Leo sighed, he felt that he owed his friend a fair response, still he wasn't sure his friend was going to like what he had to say. "I'm sure everything we have done will be blamed on Avalon and not England. As for us having issues with England, stay out of the slave trade, don't steal from the natives and keep the church out of England and we shouldn't have any issues."

Arthur nodded, "What about Ireland and Scotland?"

Leo smiled, "As for Scotland, it sounds like your father has gone a long way toward solving at least some of the issues between your two countries. As for Ireland, as Lord Wizard I am less concerned about matters of state as they relate to mundane things and more concerned about defending the country from magical threats."

"In other words you don't want to say?"

Leo shrugged, "They have a right to rule themselves. I think everyone concerned would do better having three strong kingdoms rather than two and a half strong kingdoms, even the English."

Arthur shook his head, "Such strange ideas."

Leo shrugged, "Maybe so."

Bodewhin looked around the spaceport; while she was going to enjoy the bonus the last year of hard work had netted her she was fairly sure that she was damn tired of making the weave for heartstone. It had taken her several weeks of testing before she had figured out how to adapt the weaves to work on the alloy that Sophie wanted the new Asgard high ship's hull and support structure built from. It had taken several months just to turn all of the plates in the hull into heartstone. Most of the difficulty lay in the fact that the plates had to be separated from everything else while she worked unless she wanted them fused to whatever was touching them. Working day after day on the same boring looking plate had been a test of patience her brother would never have believed her capable of. The massive support structure had presented even greater issues for her skills. That perhaps more than anything, had been why the vast bulk of the ship's support structure was one solid continuous piece of metal. It had required her linking with Lexie for the sheer amount of power to finish the weave safely.

Sophie smiled as she looked at Bodewhin. "So do you think it's worthy of its name?"

She glanced out at where the massive ship was still docked. If her understanding of Earth legends was correct then the fact that Sophie had named the class of the ship Valhalla seemed oddly appropriate. According to Sophie, it was a blend of Asgard, ancient and any technologies the research team deemed useful for building the massive ship. "I think it will serve them well."

Sophie inclined her head, "Yes, it's fairly fearsome. One of the only things I know of that could take a McKay Hellraiser. I'm glad there is only one of its kind."

While the majestic ship filled Bode with pride she was fairly sure that she would never again sign up for another job as large as this had proven. It was however, earth's way of paying the Asgard back for their help. Well that and the dozen genetically engineered bodies being grown in the lab downstairs waiting for the Asgard mental patterns that the SG1 team had recovered. "So am I. I'm looking forward to going home."

Sophie grinned, "I can imagine."

"How long until the inside of the ship is finished?"

"If there are no unforeseen problems, then the droids will have everything finished in two hundred and fourteen earth days."

Bodewhin nodded, she knew that the most time consuming part had been the work that only she or Lexie could do. The droids had used that time to construct the interior of the ship. It was just a matter of assembling the staggering amount of pieces and then testing everything one system at a time after it was installed that took so long. She knew it would have taken longer save for the thousands of robots that Sophie had placed on the project. "So, how soon until I can get home?"

Sophie smiled, "I'll have one of the bots fly you to the planet. That is unless you want to deliver the finished Hellraiser to Earth?"

Bodewhin nodded, "Sure, how are the children doing?"

Sophie closed her eyes as she accessed the most current data, "The most recent batch have just finished the academy and are ready to go."

Bodewhin couldn't help the shiver that crept down her spine. While she had nothing against the girls, she thought it was a bit weird not having a mother or father. The girls staffing the various ships that the outpost produced were created in the lab from a number of different samples of genetic material the various members of the expedition had donated. While she had brushed up on her education in her free time here, she still wasn't sure of the exact process Sophie had used to mix all of the DNA samples together into viable offspring. They all looked slightly different, though they were all tall athletic girls with pale skin. The eye and hair colors ranged the human norm and then some. The only thing they all had in common was Sheppard's rather strong ability to use ancient tech. It had been decided that that was one thing they wanted locked into the genetics of the various crew members. She nodded, "Sure. It's about time Earth got their own Hellraiser."

Sophie grinned, "The other five we've produced have been needed elsewhere. Besides earth has the chair for defense."

"I'll still feel a lot better with some ships around for planetary defense and scouting."

"I have a number of semi intelligent satellite defense platforms for you to bring back as well, as well as a special gift for Gabrielle."

Bodewhin's eyes got wide, "Oh!"

Sophie smiled, "Send her my regards."

"I will. It's a bit strange knowing that my time in here is nothing compared to the time outside the time field."

Sophie nodded, "It's the reason we like to send the crews out in groups, so that they don't leave behind friends. At least in so much as it is possible."

"You miss your friends don't you?"

"Yes, I know I'll see them again. And thanks to Gabrielle's tinkering with magic I even get e-mails from McKay now and then, but it's not the same."

"Perhaps you need a vacation."

Sophie grinned, she couldn't imagine leaving the base unsupervised for that long but perhaps she could turn the time field off for a day soon and take everyone for a vacation. She knew that a number of the research team hadn't been home for centuries. Well centuries for the people inside the field. Not that it was her fault, it's just that for most of them this was their home and they didn't want to leave. She was just glad that she had insisted on making sure everyone she grew had the longevity enhancement. "Perhaps so."

Gabrielle staggered as wave of dizziness washed over her. She used the wall of the hallway to stabilize herself. She glanced toward the northeast which was where she had felt the magical disturbance come from, "Okay, what the fuck was that?"


	41. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust

Disclaimer: I do not own the various trademarked characters.

Helen glanced at Xander as they worked their way down the path toward Dublin. "So if we didn't do this, who or what did?"

He glanced up at the massive clouds of black smoke that still clung to the sky over the city despite the fires already being out. Even the normal coastal winds seemed to do little against the stain on the landscape. "Hell if I know, but we're going to find out. I also want to know what the hell crashed the jumper."

Helen glanced over her shoulder at the beach where they had had to ditch the non-functioning jumper. She was just glad that she had managed to toss up a psychic barrier to absorb most of the impact and that they weren't going very fast when they hit, otherwise they would have been pasted against the view screen. She hoped her cloaking spell held long enough for them to check out the town and then get back. She glanced at her watch, "Fuck."

Xander pulled his elemental pistol and scanned the surrounding area for danger. He relaxed slightly as he realized there wasn't anything too dangerous around. "What?"

"My watch isn't working."

He looked at his own watch and frowned, "Mine either." The watches they used were high quality ones, designed for the military to be used and abused in ops and continue functioning despite water, mud or even heavy impacts. "The crash?"

"Maybe, but I don't remember hitting it on anything. It's probably the same field that's stopping the ship from working."

She frowned, "What do you bet the cell phone is out?"

Xander frowned as he reached into his pocket and pulled his phone out. He flicked it open and checked. "Eighty nine percent power, everything looks to be in order. Erm that's odd, eighty eight percent power." He quickly shut it when it hit eighty-seven percent power a few seconds later. "Okay something is seriously screwing with things around here."

Helen frowned as she glanced at the phone in Xander's hand, "The magic phones can survive Hogwarts, what the hell is going on?"

Xander shook his head, "I don't know, but let's get going. The faster we get this done the better."

Helen nodded. She felt a bit noxious as she glanced back toward the city and thought about the sheer number of fires that would be required to blanket the sky as it was. "How many other towns were like this?"

Xander winced, "Nothing on the English side, quite a few on the Irish side. From the satellite images, I'm guessing at least one building in every town burned to the ground. Once we actually get into town, we'll have a better idea."

"Alright."

He flipped his phone open, "Damn, still losing power." He quickly dialed Lenora's number. "Xander here, phone is dying fast." He listened for a second. "Yes I know they aren't supposed to do that. Can you just listen please? I don't have much time. The jumper lost power and crashed when we crossed the channel and got over Irish land." He rolled his eyes as he listened to Lenora's rapid question, "Yes, we're okay. We're going to explore the town and then try to get back to the jumper. Our watches burned out as well. Hell, nothing we have with any amount of tech is working. The phones are barely functioning. If you're still planning on providing help it had better be by way of wagon." He sighed, "I know it sucks, but the ships are out, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to beam into or out of here without testing it on something non-living first." He chuckled, "Yeah, stay safe." He closed the phone a second before it died. "Okay not really liking this."

Helen nodded, "Yeah me either. On the upside by the time we get done they will probably have people stationed close enough for me to contact someone. I'm not trying it if I can avoid it from within the city. I can hear the mental screaming from here and I'm shielding. This is going to suck."

Xander nodded, "Just keep it together and listen for trouble."

Helen sighed, "I'll try."

Xander nodded, "I know you will. And no dying, Gabrielle would gut me."

Helen shook her head, "Probably not that bad, she loves her uncle Xander."

He sighed, "Let's not test that theory."

Helen chuckled, "Okay boss."

Lenora glanced around as she stopped her wagon near a small town. She smiled slightly as Patrick jumped down from his spot in the back of the wagon to hand a young girl a loaf of bread. It wasn't much but apparently, it was more than the girl had eaten in a few days. Lenora was not sure who was to blame for the mess Ireland had become. This particular town was luckier than some were, and worse off than others were; most of the damage had been limited to the church, though several homes had been a bit too close to the church to escape the fire. Luckily for most of the folk around the only one that had been inside was the priest. It was a blessing compared to one of the other towns she had visited where the town's particularly religious folk had barricaded themselves inside the town's church to save it. Unfortunately for them, the fae had sealed the church's doors and burned it down with the people inside. Or at least, that was the story. The mayor had looked rather shifty eyed when she had asked what happened, so it might have been something else. She had fled that town as fast as she could.

She glanced at where Jason was busy unloading some of the supplies from the wagon. It was nice to have a bit of visible protection, even if it was the middle of the day. It seemed to help to keep people honest while she was giving out food and asking about what happened. It had taken them a while to piece together the story but apparently, the fae had decided to take back their country from the Christians.

She winced as she noticed a man, whose face was partially burned, stagger out of the inn and off down the street. She figured he had been burned while attempting to put the fire out. Still it was probably better than what had happened to one of the first towns they had stopped at. Every girl and child had vanished without a trace. Every man or boy over the age of fourteen as well as a few ugly women they had found were dead, blasted apart by lightning. It had been eerie in that the church had been the only building to be damaged, which was made even creepier by the fact that several of the lightning blasted corpses were found inside homes.

She tried to push that creepy town out of her mind. Still it wasn't promising, the numbers coming in from her various teams were showing that around sixty percent of the adult male population was dead in her area, slightly less amongst the elderly, and about eighty percent of the children unaccounted for or dead. That last part had caused her to redouble her efforts to find as many magical children as she could and rescue them from the continuing nightmare that Ireland was proving to be. She hoped her sister was having better luck.

Lillian's stomach clinched as her eyes swept past a group of naked young men and over to a group of sweat soaked naked teen girls dancing with an almost frantic need despite their obvious tiredness. She fully understand their desire to continue dancing as the last male that had fallen to the dance floor in exhaustion had been pulled from the floor by a trio of red caps and messily devoured in front of the rest. She was not at all amused as she stalked over toward the beautiful unseelie Aes Sidhe that was watching the people dance with a bored look on her face. Lillian held her wand at the ready without having it actually pointed at anything. She summoned up her courage, she really was not happy about having to make a deal with a fae. Nevertheless, after tracking down several abducted townsfolk she did not exactly have a choice now that she had talked herself through the outer guards in the fae camp. She used her free hand to toss a bag of gold coins at the Aes Sidhe's feet, "For the humans."

The tall graceful if terrifying fey creature turned and glanced at the human spell caster that dared interrupt her fun, "That is not enough for all of the humans. You may have five."

Lillian nodded quickly before the creature changed her mind or before one of the various fae she had talked her way past, decided to attempt to capture her as well. She pointed out four of the girls and a tall boy. "I want those."

"Excellent taste." She clapped her hand and several red caps dashed in and pulled the girls and boy from the rest.

Lillian tried not to twitch as the girls and boy were collared and leashed with silver chains. She used her free hand to collect the leashes. "Thank you." She smiled as she pulled all of her new humans together so that the portkey she pulled out of her pocket would collect them all. She smiled as the Aes Sidhe's face flashed with anger. She guessed that she had not been supposed to leave yet. Well the bitch could go fuck herself if she thought that she was going to stick around for her sick games. While she knew the humans she left there were probably going to die, there was not really anything she could have done about it that would not have risked her life more. She glanced over the rather cute girls who were sprawled near her feet and the young man who probably looked better when he wasn't tinted green and trying hard not to lose the contents of his stomach. "Hi, I'm Lillian. You are?" As her gaze traveled around the group, she felt a touch sad for a second that Avalon didn't allow slaves. Maybe she could get away with hiring them as servants.

Gabrielle felt ill as she read the reports piling up on her desk. "Stupid tech suppression field. This would be so much easier if we could just pile the people into ships."

"That and it puts a damper on the field reports being typed." She frowned in confusion at a piece of paper with crayon scrawled on it. "What does this say? And why is the report in large red crayon?" She passed the piece of paper over to Gabrielle.

Gabrielle looked it over for a second, "Oh, it's Maggie's report and it's probably in crayon because the pencils keep snapping when she's in her battle form. It says that she needs a home for another four girls."

"Okay thanks, I'll mark it down. Did she give ages?"

"Nope, sorry."

"This whole no computers thing sucks. Sure puts a damper on organizing things."

"Yeah, do you have a count for me yet? And how much relief food are we donating?"

"Around five thousand and fifteen children and young adults rescued. So we're going to need clothing and food for a good number of people."

Gabrielle winced, "I'll have the bots start work on some more homes. I don't think we have enough supplies for that many. I know we don't have enough meat for a health diet, not to mention eventually clothes and other items are going to be a problem." She gestured at the computer and pulled up the list of accounts she owned back in her mother's old world. "Nothing for it but to buy supplies." She winced as she started calculating how much the supplies were going to run. She turned to look at the other blue-skinned elf girl that was quietly trying to organize the list of supplies. "Morrigan, you think we can talk Giles into running the supplies through one of the council's charities?"

She looked up from her list, "As long as you're paying for it, shouldn't be a problem. And stop whining, I know Jana has been raiding Spanish ships for their gold."

"Yeah, but it's not that easy to convert large sums of gold into cash in a quick manor, at least not legally."

"'Cause that's ever stopped you before."

Gabrielle sighed, "Fine, we'll see if Dawn can transport a raiding party over to buy the supplies."

Morrigan grinned, "It will be fun."

Gabrielle scowled, "Blah shopping."

"You're like the worst 'girl' ever."

Gabrielle stuck her tongue out.

"Is that a promise?"

"Only after we get our work done."

Morrigan smiled brightly, "Okay, let's hurry up and finish the reports Sabrina, that way we can give the boss lady a show before we go."

Sabrina blushed slightly but still increased the pace of her sorting.

Cardinal Alistair was not having a thrilling day. He was currently listening to what might very well be the only survivor of the priesthood of Ireland. The old man was obviously upset by the events that had happened. He was spouting nonsense about spirit creatures burning the towns down. The old man had been out in a fishing boat with one of the younger priests trying to catch enough extra to help one of the poorer families in his congregation. He was saying something about how his fellow priest had stepped back onto the shore only to burst into flames the second his foot touched the Irish soil. Of course the man could have been saying something else; it was damn hard to understand the man as his Latin was horrible. How the man ever became a priest was beyond him. "Go get yourself cleaned up. You can make your report in the morning." He frowned as the old man hurried away. He would have to send a runner to inform his superiors about what was happening. If things were as unstable as he thought, then perhaps France would benefit from "helping" the Irish people out. After all, it would serve to cause the damned English issues.

Priest Faolan carefully kept his face plastered with a fearful look until he was out of site of the moronic Cardinal. His expression transformed to one of annoyance as he glanced around at the camp of French troops. They were helping Cardinal Shit-face press the pope's war against witchcraft. While Faolan knew that people with magic needed to be responsible… he didn't really believe that it was a mortal sin worth dying over. The fact that they were rounding up the few people that were trying to flee the destruction of their homes just to put them to the question about witchcraft was cause for shame as far as he was concerned. Mostly they were no better than a band of bandits, well bandits with a religious seal and a government backing them up. He glanced north toward his homeland. He knew that the church was going to take advantage of his homeland anyway they could, that this was just going to be yet another example of their greed. He quietly pulled his old wooden cross from around his neck. He held the cross out in front of himself. He had had the thing for nearly forty years. In perfect Latin, he spoke his last prayer, "Oh Lord of mercy, grant me sight. Fill my heart and set my path." After a minute he sighed, it had been the same for nearly forty years. He had tried being a good priest to his congregation, to give them hope in the times when they had little. The first few years had been filled with hope, but it had quickly been dashed against the rocks of despair. There was nothing of the gods or as far as he could tell a just God in the church, and yet for forty years he had assumed that helping his people was worth living a lie. He smiled an honest smile for the first time that day as he walked by a campfire and tossed his cross into the flames and continued walking up the beach.

Spike chuckled slightly as he watched the priest leave after tossing the cross into the fire, "I just love it when priests lose their faith."

Illyeria inclined her head as she listened to a voice only she could hear, "Fred says we should offer him a job passing out food up north."

"What do you think?"

"I think it's his lucky day that he isn't a priest anymore."

Spike grinned, "I do so enjoy killing priests of fake gods."

"You're a savage, you enjoy violence."

"Ah thanks, think they'll scream?" Spike glanced back toward the camp with the inquisitors in it.

Illyeria frowned, "They always do."


	42. Project rebirth

Disclaimer: I do not own the various trademarked characters.

Leo glanced at the muddy battlefield with distaste. The snow that had been falling continuously throughout the short battle had built up in places so that there were islands of undisturbed white in a sea of blood and body parts. The rest of the "battlefield" was made up of bloody and trampled ground. He was just happy that at this distance he couldn't see the bits and pieces of several of the enemy soldiers that had been blasted apart. He figured if they gave the place another several hours the worst of the mess would be hidden under a blanket of fresh snow. He sighed as he realized how cynical he was being. He blamed the last five months, while he hadn't been stuck in hell, tromping around Ireland in the dead of winter wasn't far from it.

He was currently assigned to lead a joint English/Scottish/Irish task force, built of magic users from the three lands. They were currently trying to track down a group of Unseelie that had massacred a village on the Irish coast. He sighed, while the seelie court was officially denying any responsibility for the abductions of the various missing children, they weren't as a group being that helpful in tracking down the unseelie trouble makers either. They had however had a small bit of luck with individual fey occasionally helping them find the missing children.

He spit on the ground. He felt like it was just a bloody game to most of them, but there wasn't much he could do about it. For the moment the fragile peace with the seelie court held, and it only held because Avalon had stepped in at the start of the war and proved that they could if pushed kill a Faerie noble, something that had rarely ever been done by anything short of cold iron stabbed into their hearts. Well okay, so it hadn't exactly been standard Avalon troops, but Illyria, Willow, Buffy, Spike and a bunch of council witches didn't really want people to know that their troops weren't as powerful as they were. They had ambushed an unseelie noble and his entourage and barely managed to kill the noble. It had, according to Willow, been a very near thing, sadly, not without a couple of serious injuries as well as a couple of deaths from their collection of witches. It was not really something they wanted known, they had tossed some of their strongest people at a faerie lord and had only just managed to take it down. Thus for the return of some thousand children unharmed and the promise to not just slaughter the rest Avalon had been "blackmailed" to stay out of Ireland. Thus it fell to him and the task force to do what they could to rescue the remaining children while others searched for a way to put the genie back in its bottle so to speak, as far as cold iron was concerned.

He just wished that people would stop interfering with his job. He glanced at the funeral pyre littered with the bodies of the French that they had slaughtered to the second to last man after finding that the French company occupying one of the Irish towns was using the few remaining Irish as slaves or worse. That was after the French had killed several people for witchcraft to cow the rest into submission. He glanced at the pyre before looking away in disgust. He was starting to have a better understanding of the reasons why wars had started over the years. He had never particularly hated the French or anyone really, with the exception of his recent dealings with the church, but he could understand and sympathize with the Irish warlock in his group that had burned the French company's captain's eyes out of his head while he was still alive. Not that he approved officially, but he was fairly sure the guy had it coming. Which was why, he was only going to send the guy to the counselor, rather than send the guy packing, mostly because at least this way, he could keep watch on the guy.

He glanced at his second in command. "How much further?" It was one thing to be in good shape by the standards of a twenty first century mentality. It was quite another to run around the countryside all day carrying his gear and his share of the week's worth of food. Still, even with the muscle he had put on lately it was nothing compared to his second in command.

Mortalis Black was a large bear of a man; his grim looking weather beaten face gave him the look of a savage. His dark hair was pulled back into a tail that reminded him of what it looked like when Hermione put her hair into a ponytail. His cloak was made from bear skin, supposedly taken from the bear he had wrestled to death in his youth, that is, if you believed the stories. Leo wasn't certain if they were true or false but the guy was an excellent shaman and woods guide so he wasn't about to press the guy for the truth. It was the same for the battle axe strapped to the man's waist, according to the tales it had been forged with magic.

Mortalis looked at the strange young man that was leading the group hunting the Fey. The young man was wearing black leather and a cloak, sort of nobleman meets functional woods guide. While he had served with younger commanders or better he was fairly impressed with the ability the young man had to keep a group of strong willed warlocks, shamans, wizards and various other professional magic users from breaking up or killing each other when the inevitable fight over which style was better broke out. This had happened more than a few times the first month the group had been together. Still by the end of that first month the arguments had taken on the tone of jokes and boosts rather than actual arguments, so he considered that a win. "Perhaps another couple of hours of traveling, it depends on how bad the snow has gotten."

Leo sighed, "Alright, I have to be home for the solstice if I don't want my sister to kill me."

Mortalis smiled, "Well that leaves us three days to find these fey and for you to wrap things up. Just be happy you can teleport as it's more than a three day journey back to England from here."

Leo nodded, "Yeah, I just wish it wasn't so noticeable to the fey." They had found out early in their war with the unseelie that the fey were especially sensitive to the magical 'ripples' apparition, portkeys and teleportation made. Enough that using any of the various methods within miles of one would give away your location coming or going. Of course it depended on the strength of the fey feeling it, as to how much warning they got. Still it was normally more than enough warning for them to slip away. The only really effective way to hunt them down was to use stealth, trickery and magic to lock them into an area and then use magic to flush them out such that you had a chance to get some type of "fair" combat. Not that anything was 'fair' when dealing with the Unseelie tricksters.

While they had rescued a number of children and secured more information in the form of ancient stories and lore about times long forgotten, they still had no way to know exactly what had happened to free the fey from the effects of iron. Hopefully Rose was having a better time figuring that part out than he was. He adjusted his gloves and used another small warming charm on them. He glanced at Mortalis, "So you think the drummer boy will actually take the sealed message back to the French king?"

Mortalis shrugged, "The chances of it actually getting to the king unopened are remote."

Leo sighed, "As long as the message gets there I don't care. They need to leave Ireland alone."

"I wouldn't worry, that group of French was there from before the start of winter, and the French aren't going to send more troops until at least the start of spring."

Leo scowled, "Still, better to have to kill French Christians than Irish bandits."

Mortalis shrugged, "It's bound to happen eventually. Probably next year when there are fewer crops and the people don't have a large supply of food stored up."

Leo shook his head, "Hopefully by that time we can fix the current issue."

Mortalis chuckled, "Perhaps. I'll round up the rest of the troops and tell the surviving Irish that they might want to head to the next town with us."

Leo nodded, "They have until the morning to pack if they want to leave with us, but I'm not going to delay more than that. I wouldn't even that much if we could see well enough to travel."

Mortalis glanced at the sky that was beginning to heavily snow, "Probably for the best, who knows what monsters lurk in a night like this?" He chuckled as Leo wandered off muttering.

Gabrielle scowled as she and Xander walked through the streets ignoring the people's strange looks. She didn't want to be here, more than didn't care to in point of fact. She would have rather been up in Ireland hunting unseelie but instead she was in Rome trying to fix a problem. Any other time she would have enjoyed the sights and culture. Currently she just felt rather sick at heart and angry. She felt that everyone had a right to be free from religion. But she grudgingly acknowledged that they had a right to believe what they wanted to believe, at least outside of her own country. Still, that didn't mean she was going to put up with her people being shot at. She couldn't help the shiver that went through her as she remembered how worried she had been when Xander had told her that Helen had been shot last month. It had turned out that her vest had deflected the lead ball but if Helen hadn't been in her vest, or if it had hit her in the stomach rather than her shoulder… Her mind flashed through a bunch of worst case scenarios. "No this is going to end today, one way or another."

Xander inclined his armor clad head as far as it would go, which wasn't much. He wasn't sure if she had actually meant to say that last part out loud but he had to agree. No one shot at his friends and got away with it, especially when she had just been trying to help put out a house fire. Okay so they had used magic to help but still that didn't give the papal lackeys the right to shoot her.

She had tried diplomacy; she had lodged an official protest with both the sort of Italian wannabe king and the Vatican itself. She had gotten nothing in response from the king, and a response of all witches must die from the Vatican, which was about what she had expected. This had lead her to throwing down the gauntlet of war. A pr campaign the last couple of weeks had done little to weaken the church's control over the minds of the people but perhaps the pr campaign would at least allow people to understand that she and by extension her country had declared war on the church for their vicious attacks on her citizens. While she knew she had sent people to stop the inquisitors, she viewed them as military targets; Helen hadn't been a military target for three months by that point. Ever since she had found out that Helen was pregnant she had been on light duty. She smiled grimly as she spotted the bored looking Vatican guards that had been lazily standing at attention suddenly grab their weapons as they spotted the black armored knights walking down the street toward them. She really disliked being in the full Kull armor, but that been the only way her parents had agreed to let her go on this mission.

Xander for his part was extremely glad of the Kull armor. Not to mention the built in repeating blaster he was currently using to cut apart Vatican guards as Gabrielle ripped the wrought iron gate from its hinges and tossed it behind them into an empty spot in the square. He twitched, stability and durability the armor gave in spades, strength it didn't, at least not enough strength to do what she had done with apparent ease. He would worry about that fact a bit later. He glanced around and smiled as they set out toward what he hoped were the Pope's chambers.

Leo groaned as he woke from his slumber. He kept his eyes shut as he glared in the general direction of the girl that was prodding him in the side, "What?" He opened one eye when the only response was a giggle and the feeling of long fuzzy rabbit ears softly brushing his face. "Tiffany, why are you poking me?"

"Because you're supposed to be up, it's Solstice day."

Leo groaned, "Ah right, gift day."

"Yes gift day, don't tell me you forgot?"

He blamed Gabrielle and her harem for reclaiming the solstice as a gift giving holiday in her country and letting Christmas fall to uselessness as a Christian holiday that no one celebrated. Not that he would normally complain but he wanted a few more days' hard sleep. The last couple of days had been a mess of hard marches and long nights of sleepless planning as they narrowed in on the redcaps. It had been a spectacularly bloody confrontation that had cost lives on both sides but at least it had cost the faeries more than it had cost him. He felt a bit sick putting it in those terms but he wasn't sure how else to convince himself it was worth it, other than seeing the rescued children they had recovered. Still Leo was willing to call it a win as one of the unseelie had let slip some information that might give them a place to look on how to solve the main issue they had with the Fey. Still he had passed that duty off to the researchers and today was for enjoying the party. "Fine, I'm going to grab my shower."

Tiffany sighed, "You took an hour shower last night. Aren't you clean enough?"

He shook his head, "A shower every week when I picked up the food and other supplies isn't enough."

Tiffany rolled her eyes, "Fine, I'm going to go bug the rest of the people to wake up."

He smiled, "You do that."

Morrigan smiled as she listened at Helen's stomach. "So cute."

Helen smiled, while the child was a parthenogenic conception as she was still a pokegirl and not a pokewomen and no magical spells had been cast to make her pregnant with anyone's child, at least that she knew of, or that Lily could find, she was fairly happy that she was the first of Gabrielle's girls to get pregnant. Her child would have so many aunts and uncles that would help spoil the child. Well probably not to that extreme but she knew that her family loved her. Now if she could just stop her harem sisters from touching her belly every couple of minutes she would be even happier. Not that she expected them to totally stop, but she did have other things to do than stand there all day while they listened and rubbed her stomach. "If you don't mind, if I don't get dressed then we'll never get the gift giving going."

"Clothes?"

"If I don't then everyone will decide that my belly is entertainment."

Morrigan smiled, "You're going to be just as bad when one of us gets pregnant."

Helen smiled, "Of course I will. Now if you don't mind."

Morrigan smiled and reached up and caressed Helen's breast before letting her hand fall back to her side. "Nope."

Helen smiled as she pulled her sweatpants on and grabbed one of her new overly large shirts off the shelf. At least her sweatpants still fit. It was hard finding shirts that fit right in the first place. She was fairly tall, decently slender, well other than her stomach right now, but with good sized tits for a human, though small for a mooncalf breed of pokegirl. Still, the shirt fit well enough that she didn't feel like digging through the rest of her clothes as they were stuffed in the back of the closet. "So what's the day's entertainment?"

"I don't know actually. It's probably going to be pretty tame as we have a large number of extended family coming for the festivities."

"Rats."

Willow smiled as she watched the children open their various gifts in the main lounge; it was one of the only comfortable places that would fit everyone. She smiled as she leaned against Xander, "So how do you like the Solstice party so far?"

He smiled, "Almost like Christmas, but without the religious crazies and drunken relatives. No Santa Claws either. I call that a win."

Willow snickered, "We could always give Faith a couple of bottles of whiskey and talk her into stripping…"

Xander rubbed his chin in consideration, "No, she would get sober at some point."

Willow giggled, "Maybe so, still almost worth it."

Faith grinned as she heard her friends' conversation; she ignored them as she opened her present from Xander. She blinked at the pair of jewel covered silver bracelets inside the box, "Nice, what did you do rob the Vatican?"

Xander grinned, "Erm about that…"

Gabrielle snickered from her spot between Abby and Sarah, "It wasn't like they were using the stuff anymore."

Faith blinked, "Oh, hey how come I wasn't invited?"

"Because you were in your girl friend's world screwing the stuffing out of her?"

"Hey now, Keira and I didn't have that much alone time."

Willow lightly punched Xander on the shoulder as she mock glared at Faith, "You're both a bad influence on my daughter."

Xander grinned, "Always."

Faith stuck her tongue out at Willow.

"Next thing you know she'll be chasing skirts in every pub in the land."

He shrugged, "I think that particular tendency would be your fault."

Sarah chuckled as she hugged Gabrielle, "Sounds like fun."

Abby grinned as she wrapped her tail around Gabrielle's waist. "Count me in."

Gabrielle sighed, "See what you've done."

Willow chuckled at her daughter, "Oh please, you enjoy it."

Faith shook her head, "Bad influence my ass. So speaking of bad influences, do we have any entertainment before the rigid boring people get here?"

Morrigan grinned, "Well you're welcome to watch Wendy and I _play_ with Sabrina." He glanced at Xander and Anya's child that was currently happily playing with a new stuffed bear while sitting on Anya's lap. "As for actual entertainment for the kids, we have some talent show competition stuff from some of the older mutant kids as well as a magic show for your viewing pleasure."

Faith smiled, "Sounds good."

Hermione glanced over at Morrigan, "Just be sure that things are wrapped up by three. That's when the dinner guests should start arriving."

Dawn grinned as she tilted her head back and up so that she could see Hermione from her place in her lap. "Wrapped up, sounds kinky."

Hermione chuckled, "You're horrible."

Dawn grinned, "Maybe so but you love me anyways."

Hermione grinned at Willow, "Of course we do."

Gabrielle shook her head at the silly faces her mothers were making at each other. Her mothers were hopeless romantics, even Hermione mom. She was just happy that she and uncle Xander had managed to loot the Vatican without too many issues. On the upside they had found the demon that had been responsible for backing the church. On the downside she still had to clean the demon goo off the suits before Jack yelled at her for returning dirty equipment. Though she wasn't going to complain about the suits ever again as they had stopped the rather large demon from crushing them. Perhaps she could get cooler looking helmets and maybe a coat of arms for the suits. Something to look into at the next staff meeting.

Thor blinked as he woke, considering that the last thing he remembered was setting the self destruct for his world and watching it count down he was understandably confused that he was alive. He felt odd as he reached up to look at his hand only to realize that it wasn't the clone hand he was used to. It looked more like a human hand. The proportions were all wrong compared to his normal body. He frowned as he ran his new hand over his head and felt hair much like a Tau'ri. He started mentally going through his various checklists after swapping bodies. Everything seemed alright with his memories, so at least that was a relief. He liked humans but he liked having his knowledge of his life intact as well. He checked the bed he found himself laying on. No restraints, no clothes either. He glanced around the room in confusion, while he didn't hurt, he felt a bit weird as well. Everything looked slightly off what he was used to as well. The colors were strange, there were several extra. So apparently whatever or whoever had transferred his consciousness had transferred it into something better than his original clone body. He could hear the fabric of the bed clearly as he shifted. He looked around the room, there were two doors built into the metal of the room's walls. He stopped in confusion as he noticed a primitive earth T.V. sitting on a metal table at the foot of the bed, it was wired up to a box with a note that said "Push me"

Not having anything better to do he slid his legs around and tried putting some weight on them. He wasn't all that happy with the way his legs trembled but considering that he wasn't used to this body yet it could have been worse. He carefully staggered toward the contraption and pressed the button.

Jack O'Neill's face appeared, "Hey buddy, if you're watching this it means that you're awake and things worked out. We're sorry to say that your original clone body was unsalvageable, not to mention contaminated. Forgive me; we couldn't rescue all of your race. We were only able to save several of the Asgard. We got some friends of ours to help with making you and your friends new bodies. They even took the liberty of creating a ship for you. You're on a research facility, the lady in charge is named Sophie, she'll be able to explain more. I just wanted to be a friendly face. Sorry I couldn't be here to great you, but my clone might be around. I'm not sure of the timing of the research. Anyways, O'Neill out."

Thor frowned as he watched the screen turn black. "Interesting."

Sirius Black smiled as he stepped out of his portrait and inhaled a deep breath. It felt wicked good to be alive again. Well more or less at least. If he understood Willow's explanation, he wasn't exactly alive as he was sort of possessing his new body, he felt alive though. Not that he hadn't felt alive while in the portrait, so maybe Willow was right. It was a genetically improved clone of his original body. They had found some salvageable hair on one of his brushes. After that they had done a number of things to make the body stronger and faster than his original. He was just happy that he could leave his portrait after so many years of being cooped up on the wrong side of the mirror so to speak. He glanced at Lily and James where they were standing and enjoying being on the outside of their portraits. "So what do you think?"

James smirked, "We're going to have so much fun."

Sirius chuckled, "So many pranks to pull."

Remus smiled as he looked at his three best friends of old, "Oh boy."

Lily sighed, "Just give people a while to get used to you being alive, before you start with the pranks. That way they don't assume it's a side effect of the revival process."

Sirius glanced at Remus, "Remus knows us. He'd back us up."

Lily shook her head, "Unless he thought it was funnier to watch you be hauled into a paddled room."

Remus smiled, "There is that."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh come on, it would be funny."

James glanced at Lily, "I think somewhere along the line our straight laced friend got a sense of humor."

Remus shrugged, "Someone had to."

Lily smiled, "It's good to be back. Shall we go share the good news?"

James grinned and held his arm out for his wife, "I think we shall."

Rose glanced over the dance floor then back at Leo, "So what are your plans for tomorrow?"

"I figure a day of resting and relaxing, then I'll give my reports to the various departments here then I'll probably be back in England meeting with Arthur for a few days before I head back to meet up with the taskforce. Not to spoil the work free day, but any luck?"

"Actually yes, getting closer to narrowing what happened down. We're currently trying to figure out if killing whoever lifted the ban will reverse said lifting of such, or if that would make it permanent. We aren't sure."

"Wouldn't the faeries just have killed him if that was the case?"

"Unless they can't. They might be prohibited from doing so. We're leaning towards they need him alive."

Leo frowned, "Him?"

Rose shrugged, "Probably, we aren't completely sure, but we're fairly sure that the person that lifted the ban would have to at the very least have the blood of kings running in their veins. More likely they would actually need to be a king or at least a powerful noble."

"Ah, and as there aren't a lot of queens that currently rule in their own right."

"Exactly."

"Hopefully you can figure it out; I'm tired of having to run at the first sign of a real noble of the unseelie court."

Rose nodded, "If it makes you feel better we can probably talk Gabrielle and Morrigan into helping out."

He shook his head, "I know she's pretty busy trying to get more ships to station around earth, so only if she wants to. We've still got the emergency portkeys just in case. Besides, the nobles are still fairly paranoid about risking themselves after the last one died."

She sighed, "I'd feel a lot better if you could all be in Kull armor."

"Yeah, sadly those don't actually work on Ireland currently. We've got our magical armor, it's almost as good." They both knew it wasn't even close but that didn't change the fact that it was the best they had that worked. "I wouldn't mind a lot of things, like a ship but those don't work in Ireland either."

"Just be glad that you don't have to listen to Gabrielle's ranting about wanting to know how they are doing it."

He chuckled, "You want to come help? You could get away from Gaby's whining for a while."

Rose nodded, "Sure, I might as well. It would keep me from being pestered about making pocket worlds for people as well."

He grinned, "Glad to have you. You'll like some of the men."

Rose smiled, "Any of them cute?"

He shook his head, "No, but ruggedly handsome? Perhaps, I'll let you be the judge though as I prefer the ladies."

"As do I, but sometimes… well."

He reached over and put his hand over his sister's mouth, "Don't finish that sentence. I don't want to know."

She tossed him the mental word, "Spoilsport."


	43. The crazy people with white coats today

Disclaimer: I do not own the various trademarked characters.

"Just relax and take a few deep breaths."

Gabrielle sighed but took a couple of deep breaths before relaxing again. She tried not to fidget with her hands as she lay on the black leather couch and stared up at the ceiling. She forced her hands to rest at her sides rather than worry at her skirt. She tapped her toes on the edge of the couch a few times before she forced herself to stop fidgeting completely, not exactly the easiest thing for a girl who was more than a bit nervous at the idea of talking to any type of counselor let alone one she was sure wasn't actually a qualified shrink. Still, as she had vetoed every other suggestion by the council, she was just going to have to live with it. "So now what?"

"You need to relax my little padawan and tell me about what's been troubling you."

"Nothing is troubling me. Also, if you don't stop the starwars jokes, I'm going to start comparing you to Andrew. It's not exactly funny when we have force users on the staff."

Xander cringed, "Hey now, don't be mean. He's been doing some good things for the council lately. Indexing various magical tomes and working on discovering new ways to use magic. Just because you find him annoying, is no reason to say mean things about me acting like him."

"Oh please, if Rose told Buffy what he had done on the last world they sent him to…"

Xander smiled, "On second thought… maybe we should tell her."

"Not before he finishes downloading all of the spells from his current location. So, I don't suppose we can just stamp sane on the file and call this chat over?"

"Sorry no can do kiddo."

"Rats. Why?"

"One, you're fidgeting, it's almost as much of a give away as your mother's babble. You only fidget when you're nervous. Second, cut me some credit. You tore through the priests without a problem. So why are you having trouble sleeping?"

She glowered, "Who sold me out?"

Xander chuckled, "No one, I just guessed."

She sighed, "That's not fair."

He smiled smugly, "Hey it's completely fair. I'm the normal one here. No powers, I have to be sneaky to keep up with everyone. You've been weird ever since we finished killing the pope's pet demon. So spill."

"Yeah normal, have you looked in the mirror lately? You look the same as you did when I was little and I'm not little any more."

Xander shrugged, "Still fairly normal despite my seeming agelessness. Though I wouldn't mind some of that immortal healing Adam has. It would have come in nice a time or two. Hey, no changing the subject."

"You'll keep everything off the record?"

He nodded, "Of course."

She paused for a second unsure how to start. "I don't know. That first night I think I was just too tired to dream. I mean we spent hours looting everything we could from the various vaults and rooms. It was a lot of work even with magic."

He nodded in agreement. He had been responsible for organizing the teams that had carted everything they could haul away through a series of portals to a couple of large barns in England for eventual sorting. Therefore, he was familiar with how tired a number of people, himself included, had been that first night. Giles had wanted to make sure things were organized before they even considered destroying anything. "That I'll believe."

"The second night I had bad dreams, half remembered nightmares about the demon still being alive."

"It happens. Number of times I've had nightmares about demons…"

She shook her head, "Not like that. It was easy; we walked in and butchered everyone that came to stop us."

"So you're saying you're sad about the people you killed?"

"No, but shouldn't I be?"

He shrugged as he flashed back nearly twenty years to picture Caleb's face, "I don't know. They were demon-tainted priests… I mean I'm not a real big fan of either."

She sighed, "I'm worried that I'm becoming a monster."

"So you think I'm a monster?"

She looked over at where he was sitting in his chair with a clipboard in his hands, "Does it count against my score if I say yes?"

He grinned, "Yes, yes it does."

"Okay then, no."

"Now you're just lying."

She smiled, "Maybe."

"So what's the problem? It obviously wasn't getting rid of the priests…"

"It's just they caused us a lot of trouble. Did horrible things…"

He nodded, "And you're worried that the demon isn't dead?"

"Yes, it was too easy."

"Bullshit."

She blinked, "What?"

"We walked in there with power armor designed to stop direct hits from rockets and armor mounted repeating blasters that would have given Glory pause. We had the edge, we used it. Hell even without that, you could probably have carved the demon up with your swords without too much issue." He shook his head, "Don't give me that innocent look, you took out a fully grown were-creature when you were eight after all, and you've only gotten stronger and faster since then. You haven't been able to go full strength against most slayers in years. I've a fairly good idea what you can do. So how come you weren't expecting it to die? Or are you merely hoping it's not dead?"

"What?"

"If it's not dead, you can kill any more priests you find guilt free… but if it's dead then you can't."

"That's not…" She frowned. She couldn't help but wonder if that was it. Was she so far gone that she was just looking for an excuse to kill the rest of the priests everywhere. She wasn't sure; everything the last couple of months had been a bit hectic. "I'm not sure. Maybe… Things got a bit turned around. They attacked our family, so I wanted them to suffer."

"I can understand that, but maybe… maybe it's time to let it go, at least for a while?"

She sighed, "So what happens when they elect a new Pope and start all over again?"

He shrugged, "Well four problems with that. One they would have to find a new demon that's able to do what the other one could and two the demon would have to be stupid enough to risk it."

"What's three and four?"

"Three, we killed enough Cardinals that they might have an issue sorting through who actually has the right to elect anyone. And last but not least, we put up a force field generator around the Vatican. No one is getting in or out without our approval."

Gabrielle blinked in surprise. They must have done that after she had already left. "That's just…"

He shrugged, "Petty? Maybe a little. We just wanted to make sure that we got everything of value. Just between you and me, nothing says we have to stop messing with the church, we just can't slaughter them all in their sleep."

She sighed, "Works so much better though. That way you don't have to listen to their evil monologues."

"You've been hanging around Morrigan too much I think."

"Oh please, just because she's an evil Dungeon Master is no reason to get bent out of shape."

"Oh come on, my poor little wizard was just trying to bury the dead, how was I supposed to know that the dead body pinned to a tree was an undead? It was just mean."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Next time use detect undead on everything."

"Wait, I didn't know wizards could do that."

Gabrielle shrugged, "That's why you bribe the dm with sex."

He shook his head, "Yeah… just no. Maybe chocolates?"

She laughed, "She likes chocolate. Anything else?"

He glanced over at the clock, "I've got you for a while more. So what else is bothering you?"

"I'm a little worried about Leo and now Rose trumping around Ireland without backup."

"Well you could always help them out."

She sighed, "It's hard to find out your favorite childhood creatures are monsters."

"Most of the seelie aren't too bad according to Leo and even most of the unseelie aren't involved in the mess with the stolen children."

Gabrielle sighed, "Just enough to make traveling up there dangerous."

He nodded, "I'd feel a lot better about things if the ships worked up there."

Gabrielle nodded, "So would I. I'd feel a lot better if I was up there hunting down unseelie with Leo."

"Not exactly an option. He needs to work on his command and wilderness survival skills and he's under the employ of the English crown not Avalon. Therefore, he can be up there without endangering the agreement we have with the fey. Besides, you can't afford to be captured or worse killed."

She sighed, "We shouldn't have had to make the deal in the first place."

Xander winced, "They did the best they could with what they had. While we're wishing for things, we could wish that Fred hadn't been off testing the field that prevents technology from working when they attacked the Troll Noble."

"Is it bad that I almost wish I had a picture of Illyria's expression when she found out that Troll Lords are stronger than her without Fred helping to boost her?"

He smiled, "I'm not going to tell if you don't. She's still pissed that her victory wasn't as easy as she would have liked. Talk about temperamental. I just would've liked a picture of Spike when the red cap hit him in the nuts."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Isn't there like some code of manhood where you're not supposed to say things like that?"

Xander shrugged, "I'll make an exception for Spike. Buffy couldn't keep a straight face when she was telling the story."

"That's just mean."

He grinned, "Oh yes, I have to give him style points for what he did to the redcap though."

Gabrielle winced; it was times like this that reminded her that some of her family wasn't exactly fluffy happy white hats. Not that she would have it any other way, but she did find it a bit amusing that they showed better results than most white hats teams.

Xander glanced at the clock, "Okay, I guess the time is up. You'll tell me if the nightmares come back?"

Gabrielle pulled herself up into a sitting position, "I don't think they will. But I'll tell you."

He smiled as he scribbled a pass on her chart, "Thanks, clean bill of mental health."

"You're insane."

He smiled, "Just don't tell anyone."

She smiled, "Of course not, I need someone to fill out my psycho evaluations. Err, I mean psych evaluations."

He chuckled, "Get out of here and go spoil your pregnant girl and the rest."

She smiled as she headed out the door. "Will do."

Xander looked up from writing his notes as Willow stepped into the room, "How goes?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

"Probably, she's sane, more or less. I think we worked through some of her issues. More than that, I'm not going to tell you."

"You're taking this counselor thing a bit far aren't you?" She smiled.

"Yeah, she's your daughter, I'm not telling her secrets. Last time I did that to you, you didn't talk to me for a week. She's got magic and I don't want to be a frog."

She smiled, "Relax, I'm just here to make sure she's okay."

He nodded, "I think she's a bit stressed with Helen's pregnancy. Toss the rest of everything that has been happening in and we're bound to see a couple of stress cracks. I'm half surprised she didn't level the Vatican in a fit of rage after that happened with Helen and her getting shot."

She nodded, "I felt a touch like that with Hermione and Dawn's pregnancies. Gave me a better insight into what a father feels without those internal clues. I'm just happy she's not as prone to going crazy as I am."

He smiled, "You were a little around the bend and over the hill in the crazy department. Things turned out alright though."

Willow just nodded, even though things could have turned out much worse sometimes she still felt guilty for putting everyone in so much danger that day on Kingman's bluff. She still baked Dawn cookies every year on the date she went off the deep end and threatened her. And every year Dawn pretended to not remember what day it was as she ate the cookies and did something special to prove that things were long forgiven. Though Willow wasn't sure she would ever stop feeling bad about it, she wasn't going to let it ruin the good things she had. "Thanks."

He smiled, "Any time." He was just happy that his family was happy. He knew that he couldn't fight demons like the rest, but not too many were as good at cheering people up as he was. Of the couple that were close, they could stand some Xander inspired help. He figured a few pointers and Ivy would be almost as good. A couple more years and he she would make a much better counselor than he did. "Anything else?"

Willow shook her head, "You want to grab a movie?"

Xander chuckled, "Sure, as long it's nothing Raven recorded." While he thought she was a great photographer, her movies weren't what he was in the mood for."

Willow grinned, "I was thinking something like the Princess Bride or something."

Xander grinned, "I think I can be talked into that one."

Harry smiled as his mother and father walked into the lounge, "How's it feel to be on the outside?"

James smiled, "Like I want to take an extended trip just because I can."

Lily chuckled, "We're thinking about hitting London, maybe exploring a bit. You up for it?"

Harry blinked, "Ah."

James chuckled, "Sort of like a family vacation."

"Sounds good to me."

Lily grinned, "Bring Ginny along, we'll hit the shops while you and James look for a good beer."

Harry chuckled, "I don't know, those bodies are supposed to be resistant to alcohol."

James smiled, "It'll be fun."

Harry chuckled, "Okay fine."

James chuckled, "Great, let's go collect Ginny and we'll see about getting this trip on the road."

Thor frowned at his fingers as they slipped on the keyboard for what must have been the sixth time since receiving the device a couple of minutes ago. It was odd using the Tau'ri input device, especially as his fingers were much longer now than they were before. Still it was the only way he currently had to interface with the personal computer that Sophie had provided. "Retupmoc htrae diputs." He muttered as he finally brought up the specs for the bodies he and his fellow Asgard found themselves in.

Heimdall stared at the information on the screen with amazement, "How is that possible?"

Thor read over the file as he tried to figure out how to answer the others that were gathered around the small ready room. The fact of the matter was this was a bit outside his realm of experience, which was saying a bit considering how long he had lived. "I don't know. For now I suggest we learn what we can. Sophie and by extension earth has offered us a place on this ship. I think we should consider taking it."

Kvasir nodded, "I would like the chance to see the specifications on the time dilation field they are using for this base. Not to mention Tess's research into alternate dimensional transport."

Freyr glared at his fellow Asgard, "Are you seriously considering abandoning who we are? Anything we show them… We should seek out the Asgard here and let them help us."

Thor looked at each of the few remaining Asgard, "We're all that remain from our dimension, the last part of a dying race."

Freyr glanced at Heimdall, "How close were you to finding a way to fix things?"

Heimdall sighed, "I've spent a life time working on it. There were too many flaws and too much damage. Maybe if I had a sample from before we started down the path to stagnation and ruin." He flexed his arm, "Honestly I want to work on something else. I'm done wasting my time on looking for solutions to a problem I no longer care about."

Freyr blinked then almost snarled, "You no longer care?"

"I've got a body, the strength and durability are amazing, far beyond our original bodies and certainly beyond the cloned husks we've been using. I'm not going back to one of those rotting clone bodies."

Thor shook his head, "It is not an option anyways. Perhaps the Asgard of this universe would help us, perhaps they wouldn't. I am not willing to take the risk currently. We are the last of our people. I might have been willing to sacrifice my life and my world so that our legacy did not doom the universe but I am not going to throw away my life because of a childish desire to cling to what was. Heimdall, if you would be so kind as to work with Sophie or one of her techs and assure us the mental stability of these bodies, I think we all would be grateful."

Heimdall smiled, "Of course."

Thor turned to Kvasir, "Do you think you can help them refine the technology for time dilation and transporting between dimensions?"

"I don't know, they seem to have a good grasp on technology but time dilation is my area of expertise. I'll make the offer."

"Good." Thor was trying not to push his fellow Asgard too much as the lines of command had taken a serious hit but he also didn't want his fellow Asgard to fracture either.

Freyr frowned, "Assuming that the mental processes are sufficient, and assuming that this isn't some trick, where do we go from here. There aren't enough of us to crew a ship, at least not without heavily relying on the computer."

Thor pulled up another file on the computer, "This is a list of the recent graduation candidates from the school here."

Freyr shook his head, "You expect us to staff our ship with humans?"

Thor smiled, "No, while their ancestors might have been human, I'm not sure we can truly call these children human any longer. Some of the best of the best of humanity donated their genetic material for these children's ancestors. Sophie has had many years now to tinker with their genetic material. There is a whole class of scientists that are genetically similar to our new forms. Their pilots have faster reaction times; their warriors are even more impressive."

Freyr nodded grudgingly, "I'll look over the list and we'll see. I would like to meet some of the recruits."

Thor smiled, it wasn't much but it was a start. Perhaps this new alliance would work even better than the old one. "That shouldn't be a problem. We should also figure out what we want the unfinished sections of the ship to look like."

Freyr nodded, "We can start that after recruiting people." He wasn't exactly happy about how things had worked out but if he was honest with himself he was looking forward to building something new. Perhaps something where there wasn't a council telling him how to conduct a war they had no real interest or seeming desire to actually win. He knew that it had bothered Thor in the past as well. He smiled as he read some of the children's abilities. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Erana Carter smiled at her friends as she dropped into the free seat at their table in the crowded the cafeteria. "What's with all of the people?"

Max frowned as she looked over her purple haired friend in surprise, "The lists for the job postings went up. Where have you been?"

"Working on some research with Kvasir. He's been giving a few guest lectures at school." She smiled like the giddy school girl she was. "He's extremely good at the practical side of physics."

Max sighed, "I get it, physics good." She loved her friend but she was just glad that she didn't launch into geek mode too often unlike some of her other classmates. Not that she had any issues with geeks, but she just didn't have much interest in science, certainly not past the amount needed for calculating the basics she needed to fly a scout ship.

"So did you get anything?"

"Don't know haven't gotten up the nerve to go and check."

Mary shook her head full of long red tresses as she looked at Max, "Okay wait, you'll happily, I dare say gleefully, rocket around in a ship flying backwards after spinning it around a combat drone but you're scared of checking to see the duty assignments?"

"Yeah, well wouldn't you be? I don't want to let my line down."

Mary smirked, "I'm just happy I don't have that issue. As much as it gets you two prestige and attention, I think people pay you more attention than I would like. I'd rather be an amalgamation rather than a direct line."

Erana Carter smiled, "It's just a name."

Max Sheppard shook his head, "Yeah, well at least the original Carter is good at so many things it hardly surprises anyone when one of you does something different."

Mary frowned, "I thought you loved piloting?"

Max grinned, "Hell yes, but traditionally it's either piloting or military. I mean hell it's not like they would take me seriously if I showed up at the science academy and said I wanted to be a tech."

Mary shook her head, "That's because they know you have a warped sense of humor. And I know for a fact you had the scores to do very well in science."

Max tapped her foot unconsciously, "Yeah, too boring. That whole staying in place bit sucks."

Mary shook her head, "How come you can stay still when you fly?"

"Because I'm moving the ship. I'm doing something."

"You could have always joined the security force."

Max shook her head, "I'll leave the knuckle dragging for others."

Mary grinned, "Hey now, this knuckle dragger can beat the crap out of a tank."

Erana reached over and patted her friend on the head, "Not to mention take apart a stardrive in under thirty minutes."

Max smiled as she good naturedly teased her friend, "It's the putting it back together that she has issues with."

Mary's finger glowed brightly as a tiny narrow beam shot out of it and melted the end of the fork that Max was holding.

Max held up her hands after quickly dropping the fork, "Okay okay, no more jokes today."

Erana smiled, "Good because I think they are going to announce the crew selections."

Max smiled as she heard several of her other friends get assigned posts on some of the smaller scout ships. A few were assigned to ships attached to the new Hellraiser ship that was being completed. Other than possibly Erana, they weren't that likely to get assigned to the Hellraiser. Typically only the McKay or Carter tribe members got to skip the unofficial year minimum service requirement in one of the base's work based departments to get posted to a Hellraiser. Still she couldn't complain, as the Sheppard tribe typically got the juiciest picks from the various pilot postings.

Mary's jaw tried to drop through the floor as she was assigned with her friends and one other person that she didn't recognize to a small scout ship that was one of a dozen assigned to the Valhalla. She smiled, while they tried not to break friend groups up, it was still slightly uncommon to have everyone assigned such a choice job. "Wee."

Max chuckled as her friend danced out of her chair and floated up out of her seat dancing back and forth. Now that was a trick she would like to learn. Sadly until she actually graduated in several days she wasn't allowed to learn any non work related powers from the various training machines. Which explained why she only knew several speed boosting techs and a couple of attacks that were also useful for welding and other mundane things. Nothing quite as impressive as the array of offensive and defensive tech her combat engineer friend knew. Typically that was another reason for the year long wait before major postings. The administration wanted to give everyone enough time to practice with the new techs they could buy with their work study credits. Max planned on raiding the tribe's collection as soon as she graduated rather than spending her credits on the public mainframe. She figured the credits would be better used to buy more training programs for the collection rather than paying for a use of the center's machine. Everyone knew that it was a created economy but as long as everyone allowed it to work then it worked. And why wouldn't they, it was backed by the queen, may she live forever.

Erana smiled, "I say this requires a party."

Mary smiled, "How do you think we should celebrate."

Max smiled, "I've got a bottle of earth wine, which I've been saving for a special occasion."

Erana smiled, "What type?"

"Strawberry."

"Oh, okay that sounds like a plan."

Mary nodded, "Anyone know the other person?"

Max shook her head, "Not a clue."

Erana frowned, "Sounds familiar but I'm not sure." They had hundreds of classes with thousands of different people over the years. The high school was set up like a college in some ways and yet completely different and only really possible because of the nature of recorded holographic tech they used for instructors. They basically had three classes that you had to take daily and then free periods were you took a selection of various topics each lasting a week. Each month, one of your three main classes could be changed to focus on one of the side classes. In other words it offered a great deal of selection and choice in what and how you learned. This also meant that they tended to cycle through classmates at an alarming frequency, thus even with her superior intellect she could be forgiven for not knowing the other girl's name. "Well we have her ID number we can ring her up."

Gwen looked around nervously as she walked through the metal halls of the cadets' dormitories. She glanced at her hand held and tapped a few buttons to swirl the map. "Ah there we go." She was more comfortable with her plants than people, not that she didn't like people it was just she liked planets more. She wasn't exactly sure how she had landed herself in enough trouble to get assigned to a scout ship. She frowned as she remembered acing her flying class and the instructor asking her if she had considered a pilot's post. She shook her head as she arrived at her new teammate's dorm room. She pushed the entry panel to alert the people inside that they had a visitor.

Erana smiled, "Computer, open the door." She smiled at the cute blue skinned elf girl standing in the hall. "Come in, we don't bite, much."

Gwen nervously walked in and looked around. There were a couple of personal items spread around the small dorm room but not too many things. Her eyes briefly stopped on a picture of a large gathering of girls. They had a large banner that read Sheppard Clan. She didn't really have a clan like the Sheppards though every dark elf in production was related to her via their genetic ancestor Sabrina. Heck in some small way, she was related to the Sheppards though that could be said for every single cadet here as his blood had been the sample Sophie used to introduce the ancient gene to every blood line. It was such a small amount of DNA that most didn't consider it worth mentioning though everyone knew it. She looked at the other two cadets in the room. "Hi."

Erana smiled, "So magic user by race, what by trade?"

Gwen smiled; technically she was an enchantress but most everyone around called her a Dark Elf or if they were being annoying a Smurf. "Botanist, I'm also qualified as a pilot, you?"

Erana smiled, "Scientist, pilot, and general problem solver."

Max smiled, "Pilot and Demolitions girl."

Mary smiled, "Knuckle dragger, combat Engineer and weapons platform."

Gwen blinked, "Oh, sweet."

Mary grinned, "Yes, yes it is."

Erana smiled, "So care for some wine?"

Gwen nodded. She had passed her last test and didn't see any reason to not have a little bit. Besides judging by the bottle and the percent sign it was closer to a light hard cider in alcohol amount anyways. There were also four people to split the bottle with. "Sure."

Mary smiled as she poured Gwen a glass, "So any idea why you were picked?"

"I was working on a project when Freyr came in and observed one of the magic classes I was taking. He seemed rather impressed with a couple of my projects."

Erana nodded, "It was Kvasir for me. Max beat the last high score on the combat simulator game. That might have had something to do with it." She raised her hand and held her fingers slightly apart.

Gwen blinked as she looked at Max in shock. She had enough issues just placing last on the scoreboard and the list contained over a thousand names. She also knew that the pilot class had to run through the test on murderous difficulty just to have their score count. And they didn't get a higher scale for their score. She had tried it as a lark once; she lasted about three minutes of a twenty minute hell in space course. Not that she blamed the people that designed the game as the Sheppard line had been altered to have increased reactions as well as several other upgrades. "Nice."

Mary shrugged, "I have no idea. I blame these guys and my decent scores in Engineering."

Gwen took a small sip of the wine, "Oh nice."

Erana knew it was rare but she figured she would ask anyways, "Any medical issues we need to know about?"

Gwen shook her head blushing, "Nothing drugs help with."

Max smiled, "How often? And need or want?"

Gwen sighed, every line did slightly better with ferality depending on several variables, how much pokegirl DNA a girl had, how many generations you were removed from the start of your line, and how lucky the researchers were with stamping it out. Enchantresses were sex fiends for the most part, thus while her line didn't go insane like the original line they weren't a bucket of roses if deprived of sex for more than a while. It wasn't something she liked to talk about but it was regarded as relevant medical data that her shipmates needed to know. "Every two weeks, and want, at least I think. I get sort of grumpy and withdrawn."

Mary grinned, "If one of us doesn't work out, then I'm sure the ship will have a number of companions for your use."

Gwen nodded, "So which of us is in charge? I'm not really sure how this is supposed to work."

Erana grinned, "Not exactly sure, my sister got assigned to command over her group. My other sister didn't, doesn't seem to bother either of them."

Max grinned, "Don't look at me, I've no idea. Just depends on the individuals I think."

Mary looked at Gwen for a second before they both said at the same time, "Not me."

Max chuckled as she looked at Erana, "I'll flip you for it if command doesn't decide for us."

Erana smiled, "You're on."

Max turned to look at Gwen, "So tell me about yourself."

"Not munch to tell, vat grown and assigned to one of the care facilities until I was old enough to go to school, then I pretty much went to school for the last fourteen years."

Max shook her head, "Music favorites? Do you like chocolate? What do you do with your spare time?"

Gwen shrugged, "Celtic, or rock and roll. Of course I like chocolate. Play with growing plants. Oh and when I have extra time, I work on Enchanting trinkets to sell."

"I meant spare time…"

"Yes."

"That's…"

"Sad?"

"Slightly." Mary laughed, "Don't worry we all have our hobbies."

Max frowned, "At least mine don't explode when you touch them."

Mary grinned, "You shouldn't have touched them then."

Gwen frowned as she looked at Erana, "Are they always like this?"

Erana smiled, "Sometimes they sleep."

Gwen sighed, while her teammates seemed nice, it was going to be a long night if they were expecting her to carry the conversation, luckily though it proved to not be needed as the other girls started talking about their favorite things and hobbies and their favorite classes.

Willow smiled as she leaned back against the edge of the hot tub and gazed at her wife. "Penny for your thoughts?" She smiled and took a sip of her wine.

Hermione grinned; the hot tub was nice and relaxing. Not to mention it was nice to get a chance to just hangout with Willow by herself. Not that she didn't like Dawn, it was nice to get alone time with her as well, but she got less with Willow. She smiled as she waited for the perfect moment, "No more letting Dawn use cleats in the bedroom." She chuckled as Willow spit her wine out in surprise, "Just kidding."

Willow shook her head, "You're naughty tonight."

She smiled, "I'm with this cute girl in a hot tub alone for the first time in months, what's not to love?"

"So now that you have me what are you going to do with me?"

"I think we'll share a bottle of wine and after we have soaked enough I'll haul your naked ass out of this tub and over to the grass and fuck you silly for everyone to see. Maybe even give you your birthday spanking early. Would you like that?"

Willow giggled, "You'll mortify the children."

Hermione smiled as she brought her foot over and used her toes to gently caress her wife's breasts. "You didn't say it didn't sound fun though. They've gotten over worse."

"True." She leaned back against the hot tub and enjoyed the attention.

Dawn smiled as she felt Talsanra's tongue slip along the underside of her left nipple. She smiled, while it wasn't the same as having both her wives licking her at once it was still fun, besides Hermione deserved some Willow time. It had been a while and as much as she loved having sex with both of her girls at once sometimes it was nice to mix things up a touch and have some alone time. She was brought out of her musing as Talsanra licked her nose. "Huh?"

"I'm a cute naked fifteen year old jailbait girl ready and willing and you're a hundred miles away. What's up with you today?"

"Sorry, I'm just thinking about Hermione and Willow, picturing how they look."

"We could always sneak over to one of the courtyard windows and watch."

Dawn giggled, "Maybe another night." After a few seconds she frowned, "Does it bother you?"

"That you're thinking about your wives? No. Now if you were thinking about some tramp slayer girl rather than me while I'm sitting here all cute and pretty? Maybe."

"You're a very strange girl you know that?"

Talsanra smiled, "Thank you. Are you finished drifting? Or do I have to distract you in other ways."

Dawn grinned as she looked up at Talsanra's breasts. "Oh, distractions sound fun."

Talsanra smiled as she went back to work on her lover's breasts.


	44. Picnics and Dawn's luck

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach (the anime)

Dawn looked around in confusion at the people that weren't screaming or running for the hills. Not that either of those things was normal behavior but even in Japan when a large black gateway opened in the middle of a park and monsters came tumbling out there should be more reaction than this. She frowned as she noticed that one of the monsters was a little green haired kid that was trying to run away from the other monsters. Even as she watched another one of the monsters that looked like an overly large mask with legs jumped in front of a red blast of energy that one of the other monsters tossed at the kid. She blinked in surprise as it disintegrated the creature.

Talsanra blinked as Dawn tensed, "What's wrong?"

"Be right back." Dawn jumped up from her spot on the blanket and ran toward the scared kid. 'What the hell am I doing, it's probably a monster.' She didn't really have a good excuse but she wasn't going to let some warty frog tongued demon blast a cute child with one of those red blasts. "Hey butt face!" She gestured wildly at the creature. Her face twitched with a smile as the creature turned and looked at her, that was until it tossed the massive blast of energy at her instead of the child. She skidded to a halt and tossed up a small portal in front of her. She smiled grimly as the blast vanished into the portal and exited the other side of the portal, one she had conveniently placed behind the creature.

Karin Kurosaki frowned as she watched the hallow eviscerate itself with its own attack. She glanced at the girl that had charged at the hallow, she didn't look like a Shinigami, she didn't feel like a Shinigami either. She glanced around at the sparse people to make sure that none of them were paying much attention to the crazy person shouting at nothing. Seeing no one paying much attention, she cautiously walked toward the girl.

Dawn frowned as she glanced at the crying child. "Hi?" She adjusted her translation ring and tried Japanese, "Hi?" She watched the little monster blow its nose on its green robes before it responded nervously, "Hi?"

Dawn smiled as she curiously approached the green haired girl that had a strange broken skull like mask sitting on her head. "Hey there, you look lost. What's your name?"

The kid frowned, "Nel Tu."

Dawn smiled, "I'm Dawn. Do you know how you got here?"

Nel looked around briefly before shaking her head. "Dondo brought us; we were playing when the bad thing jumped us." Nel started to cry and rub her eyes, "Pesche didn't make it."

Talsanra frowned as she watched Dawn talk to empty air. She glanced wearily at the teenage girl that was closing on Dawn. She looked about twelve or thirteen. "Dawn? You alright?"

Dawn glanced back at Talsanra, "No, I'm trying to figure out what to do with Nel here."

Talsanra glanced over at the other teenager, "Huh."

Karin frowned, "I'm Karin, not Nel. I don't think your friend can see Nel."

Talsanra frowned before using a detection chant that Sabrina had shown her a while ago, it was mostly used to detect magic and possessed items. She blinked when she noticed that there was a young child with its arms around Dawn's legs. "So I see."

Karin frowned as she looked back and forth between the two as they turned to look at her, "Most people can't see spirits."

Dawn nodded, "Ah, I see. Somehow I don't think just leaving her here would be for the best."

Karin shook her head, "I know a place we can probably get some answers."

Dawn smiled, "Good."

Talsanra muttered in English, "Next time you want a quiet picnic maybe we should skip the portalling to random worlds and just try someplace on our world?"

Dawn shrugged, "I was tried of the middle ages. Besides, I wanted modern times."

Talsanra sighed, "I'll grab the picnic stuff while you carry the girl."

Karin glanced between the two people who were speaking English, at least she was fairly sure it was English, she only understood about half the words. She wasn't sure but figured that the best place she could take them was to Urahara's shop.

Kisuke Urahara glanced up as he felt a powerful and only slightly familiar reiryoku signature and an unknown extremely powerful signature that felt slightly like an Arrancar's signature enter the shop. He relaxed slightly as he recognized Ichigo's sister. He frowned as he noticed the western strangers walk in with her. Neither one had much reiryoku but there was something a bit off about the older girl. It took him a few seconds to realize what it was, if the girl truly had such low reiryoku levels then there would be no reason for the girl's hands to be holding the little Arrancar's feet so that she didn't fall off. He glanced back at the younger western girl; if he looked carefully he could detect a faint build up of spiritual energy around the girl's eyes. He glanced at where the childlike Arrancar was happily perched on the older of the three girls' shoulders. "How can I help you?"

Dawn chuckled, "Ah good, you can see her. I was having a nice picnic and this girl decided that she liked my shoulders. My other friend was having trouble seeing the little munchkin, Karin mentioned that you might know something about spirits like her."

Karin glanced around, and then looked at Kisuke, "I didn't know where else to go now that Ichigo's out of the field so to speak."

He nodded, "Nah, you brought her to the right place." He turned and smiled at Nel, "How did you get here?"

Nel glanced over at the man, she was still slightly nervous but her new friend was here and the other girl felt familiar, so she figured she was safe enough. "Dondo brought us when the bad thing was chasing us. They didn't make it."

Dawn could tell she was trying hard not to cry, "It'll be alright Nel." She half smiled at Kisuke, "I'm Dawn and this is Talsanra."

Talsanra smiled, "Hi."

"So what do you want to know?"

Dawn frowned, "My picnic was interrupted by the monsters chasing Nel here. I'm sort of curious what exactly they were."

He nodded, "It's a bit of a story."

She grinned, "We've got a bit of time."

He nodded, "Very well, let's see if Tessai has any tea brewing."

Dawn grinned, "I could use a nice cup of tea."

Talsanra chuckled, "You spend too much time with Giles."

Dawn shrugged, "What unlike my sister I can appreciate a good cup of tea."

Kisuke raised an eyebrow, somehow he thought their stories would be equally as interesting as the run down on hallows and arrancars.

Dawn yawned as she stretched out her back while being careful to not wake the sleeping girl in her lap. It had taken several hours for Kisuke to explain things well enough that she had a slight understanding of what was going on in this innocent seeming town. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel as she glanced at the girl sleeping in her lap, Nel or more formally Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck looked rather sweet but from the stories she sounded dangerous, it was hard to picture but she knew plenty of dangerous people that looked innocent. Now that she understood a little about what she was she was slightly concerned for the girl. On the one hand, she was supposed to be a fairly powerful creature, on the other she seemed like a rather innocent child, which was sort of a problem, because if she was understanding things correctly then the girl's protectors were gone. They couldn't in good conscience just send her back to the hallow homeland, and soul society wouldn't exactly allow her to stay there. Though again if she was understanding things correctly the only reason she was a child was because of an injury, and Karin knew someone that could heal people, possibly even repair her broken mask. Though, she wasn't sure that all of the players had actually met either other. She glanced at Kisuke, "Do you think that Orihime could heal her mask?"

He frowned, "Possibly, what are you thinking?"

"I was thinking that if you healed her mask then she would be more able to make decisions on what she wanted."

He frowned, "Why does it matter to you?"

"I saved her from the hallow chasing her, I'm not just going to let someone send her back to an evil land without protection. Besides, you can make artificial bodies for shinigami, think of it as a challenge to make Nel one."

Kisuke smiled, "It would be interesting." He turned to look at Karin, "You should probably get home, but do you think you could have Ichigo stop by in the morning? I want to ask him some questions about Nel before we heal her mask."

Karin nodded, "Sure."

Talsanra watched the girl as she departed, 'You know she has a twin?'

Dawn chuckled at the mental message from Talsanra before responding in kind, 'No, you can't lust dust them enough to watch them fuck like bunnies.'

Talsanra sighed, 'Damn. How about after we get to know them?'

Dawn chuckled, 'Probably still no, but we'll see.' She turned to look at Kisuke, "So do you know any hotels around?"

Kisuke nodded, "Yeah."

Talsanra smiled as she felt Dawn stir beside her, she loved waking up next to Dawn. She didn't get to do it too often, which meant that when she did it was a special treat. She giggled as Dawn's hand reached around and pulled her close. "Sleep well?"

Dawn yawned, "Yeah. The place is a bit smaller than I would have liked."

Talsanra shrugged, "Could be worse, I hear that in some places in Japan they have coffin hotels."

Dawn chuckled, "No thanks, besides I think they would have frowned at me for trying to smuggle you and the munchkin in there." She glanced over at a still sleeping Nel curled up in the chair with a blanket around her.

"Yeah well, somehow I don't see the younger sisters' excuse working so well for those things."

"Probably not, how much time do we have?"

"Enough to grab separate showers and then make our way back to the shop."

Dawn grinned as brushed her hands over the other girl's breasts, "Damn I was hoping we had time for some other things…"

Talsanra giggled as she leaned in and ran her tongue along Dawn's breasts. She grinned as she shifted to look Dawn in the eyes, "Maybe if we didn't have the munchkin with us."

Dawn shrugged, "I wasn't going to leave her with Kisuke."

"Yeah, he's a bit too mad scientist for my taste."

Jinta frowned as the western girls entered the store, he wasn't happy that they had an Arrancar with them, even if it was a supposed nice one. Still there was something slightly off about the girls that he just couldn't figure out. He glanced at Ururu, "What do you make of them?"

She shrugged, "They seem nice, even the Arrancar doesn't feel dangerous."

He shook his head, "You're crazy."

Nel waved at the kids as they went inside the shop.

Ururu gave a small wave back.

Nel's eyes lit up as she spotted Ichigo, "Ichie." She jumped from Dawn's shoulders and tacked him.

Ichigo blinked as he suddenly found himself of the floor with his ribs being squeezed.

Talsanra taking pity on Ichigo cast her see the spirits spell on him. "There you go."

He blinked before smiling and looking down at Nel, "Hey you."

"Don't leave me."

He shook his head, "Not going to happen."

Nel looked up at him, "Promise?"

He nodded, "Yeah." He looked around at the new people, "So how is this going to work?'

Dawn shrugged, "After hearing the stories of your friend, we think that Orihime could probably repair her mask."

He nodded, "I had considered asking her, but with everything going on last time as well as her having protectors… I didn't I didn't want to rob her of her chance to sit out the fighting."

Everyone glanced up as the chime on the door rang.

Orihime smiled as she walked in, "Sorry I'm late."

Kisuke shook his head, "Nonsense, you're the person of the hour."

Talsanra grinned as she watched the preparations with interest, so many different techniques to learn. She wondered if Dawn would let her stay and train with these people a while. 'Hey, boss lady, you think we could stay a bit and see what these guys have to offer ability wise?'

'Sure, we'll see how things go but I wouldn't mind swinging back through here for your dose of smooches every couple of weeks.'

'Better be more than every couple of weeks.'

Dawn smiled, 'Sure, now pay attention to the girl's healing techniques.'

Talsanra smiled as she watched a yellowish dome of energy form over Nel's mask and the missing pieces slowly filled in.

Orihime concentrated as she fed energy into her healing technique, she hadn't ever done anything quite like this but she took comfort in that it seemed to be working.

Dawn smiled as Nel turned back into her young adult form as the last of her mask was restored. She was actually pretty cute, all things considered.

Nelliel smiled as she looked around, "Thank you."

Ichigo smiled, "You look better without the scar."

She grinned before reaching over and hugging him, "Thanks."

He winced, "Easy, I'm not as strong as I used to be."

She frowned, "Sounds like I have a lot to catch up on."

Kisuke looked at Ichigo, "Why don't you start working on that while I work on her Gigai."

Ichigo nodded, "How long is the synthetic body going to take to build?"

He shrugged, "Not sure, probably most of the day considering it's got to fit an Arrancar for an extended duration."

Nel grinned, "Good you catch me up, unless you have more important things to do?"

He wisely shook his head.

Talsanra grinned, "So Mister Urahara, do you think I could watch the creation process, it's fascinating."

He nodded, "If you can show me how you did that trick that allowed Ichigo to see Nel's spirit form."

She grinned, "Of course."

Dawn sighed as the two walked off toward the basement lab, "Now I'll never get out of here." She glanced at Orihime's expression, "You might want to make sure he isn't telling the story wrong." She gave Orihime a gentle push toward Nel and Ichigo.

Nel smiled as stood up and hugged Orihime, "Thank you for healing me."

Dawn watched happily as both of the girls' large breasts pressed together. She had to fight to keep a smirk off her face as she glanced over at Ichigo's face. Judging by his expression they might not even need lust dust to get something going. But first she would see how the explanations went. Maybe after that, she would suggest that Nel could use a place to stay and hope that Orihime could help her out. That would give Ichigo plenty of reason to go visit them both as she made sure that Nel was settling in nicely.

Orihime smiled, "You're welcome."


	45. Marie

Day one of temporal fold vacation on Sophie's moon:

Gabrielle glanced nervously at the bundle of munchkin she was being handed. "She's so tiny."

Lexie rolled her eyes, "You're not going to break her."

Gabrielle took the wrapped girl carefully and held her gently, "I know, I'm just thinking about what Helen's munchkin will look like."

Lexie chuckled as she watched Gabrielle hold the new baby, "As I understand it, much like Helen."

Gabrielle nodded, "So what's it like using the new device?" The time dilation of the science station always made her a bit uneasy. Still, it had been running for months on the outside and years and years on the inside without any serious issues, so she had figured it was time to visit again. Not to mention that she really needed to get away from Rose and her new boyfriend. He was a nice guy but she was a bit jealous about him stealing more of Rose's already limited free time from her. She found herself half wishing that she hadn't saved him from the other world on their last mission. She sighed and took a breath to relax as she pulled her attention back to the conversation at hand.

Lexie shrugged as she pointed at a metallic spot on the large machine built into the wall, "A little strange, but then again considering Rogue's mutation and our immortality we figured it was better than trying to get her or me to try to carry our baby to term, even with Willow's pregnancy spell there would probably be complications. Much simpler this way, you just place your hand on the scanning plate and it fast grows an offspring based on your genetic code... Or if you're feeling lucky it will take two or more samples and create an offspring."

"I know the theory, Dawn mom got the basic device from an alternate reality, they've been tinkering with it ever since. I just think that you're a touch insane."

She gave Gabrielle a look filled with lust. "Want to take a walk on the wild side with me?" She glanced toward the plate then at Gabrielle with a smile that was halfway to a friendly leer.

"Stop looking at me like that, it's creepy, you fuck mom on a regular basis." She chuckled when Lexie couldn't keep a straight face, "Yeah, exactly. Fine, I'll admit that you have some interesting magic, but gah."

Lexie smiled as she looked at the newly created not quite clone girl, "Does this mean that you don't want to watch her get fed?"

Gabrielle glanced over her old babysitter's body, she liked the girl's sparkling blue eyes, her long brown hair, her pale skin and height, but the fact remained that she was one of her mother's lovers, and that added a whole level of ugh to the whole idea. On the other hand, nudity didn't exactly bother her and she was still hot. "Nah, go for it."

Lexie smiled as she untied the straps on her dress and let the top fall.

Gabrielle spent a few seconds just admiring the lady's full breasts before handing the baby girl back to the girl's mother.

Lexie chuckled as she brought the child up to nurse on her tit, "I'm just happy that the properties of milktit milk aren't completely magical and that it can be replicated otherwise we might have to resort of weird chemicals or bottles."

Gabrielle grinned as she stared at the other girl's full breasts, "Me too."

"You're horrible, you know that right?"

Gabrielle grinned, "That's why you love us."

Lexie grinned, "Yeah, yeah."

Rogue walked in with a smile as she noticed Lexie nursing her baby girl. She turned to look at Gabrielle, "You perving on my girl?"

Gabrielle chuckled, "Yeah, you going to do something about it?"

Rogue grinned, "Yeah, I think just for that you'll have to stay with us and become the girl's babysitter. Just think of it as practice for when Helen's kid is born."

Gabriele grinned, "Alright, I've been meaning to finish up some classes and get some practical work done anyways. Here is as good a place as any to study. So what are you naming the kid?"

Rogue smiled as she shared a glance with Lexie, "Marie Neve Raven."

Gabrielle smiled, "Sounds like a good name."

Lexie reached down and ran her fingers through her daughter's fine hair, "Yeah."

"So when are you and Nevelle going to pop out a couple of munchkins."

Lexie sighed, "He wanted to be run through the ascension machine first."

Gabrielle scowled, "I know I suggested it at the general meeting for a trial case involving some of the scientists, but I didn't expect him to take it to heart."

"Yeah, not so much. I think that blotched memory charm on him when he was younger and being raised by his twisted grandmother has left him feeling less intelligent than he should. His plan had involved allowing the process to continue for a while before having a child, then waiting some more and having another and so on before he had to reverse the ascension process. Sadly, or not the machine doesn't seem to work on immortals. Hopefully he'll come around to the idea of having more than just Frank."

"I'm not brave enough to use the ascension machine on myself or my girls, even through several of my girls would like to."

Rogue raised an eyebrow, "I'll never quite get over just how competitive pokegirls are."

Gabrielle smiled happily, "Yeah, but there is something to be said for multiple naked girls working together to push you over the edge."

Rogue shook her head, "I was thinking more about the ascension device and the girls wanting to use it."

Gabrielle nodded, "I'm not really sure what exactly it would do."

Rogue frowned, "So are you going to have any spawn with the device?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Sarah would love to, but the rest of the girls are back taking care of Helen or out on missions."

"How long until the baby is due?"

"A few days to a couple of weeks? Ginny isn't really sure, she'll call when she goes into labor."

Lexie had to keep herself from snickering and commenting on how Gabrielle was definitely the man of the relationship. "So how are you going to keep yourself sane?"

Gabrielle grinned, "I've always wanted my own ship, we've come a long way since the Valhalla was built…I have some ideas that I want to work on, besides I have some reading for fun that I wanted to catch up on before all of my time is taken up with the little one."

Rogue nodded, "I only plan to be going to school part of the time. That should leave plenty of time for your projects."

"Sounds like a plan."

Day five:

Gabrielle clapped along with the rest of the crowd as she watched the actors and actresses step up to the edge of the stage and take a bow at the end of the live performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream. She had been pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed the show despite Avalon's current issues with the faerie folk. She turned to look at Sarah, "So what did you think?"

Sarah grinned and whispered, "It was cute." She glanced around the large and mostly packed theater, "Nice turnout."

"Apparently the school's theater program is very popular."

Lexie shrugged, "In the early days some girls tried to start a naked flag football team, but the school had to shut it down due to injuries."

Gabrielle blinked, "With our medical tech and the healing machines for the altered girls?"

"Apparently, differences in physical ability, not to mention the competitive nature of the girls proved more than they wanted to deal with."

"Huh, that's a bit scary."

Sarah nodded, "So any other entertainment besides the theater?"

Lexie grinned, "Well you can always check out the local geek hangouts and clubs."

Gabrielle grinned, "Might as well. Any suggestions?"

"Nah, I haven't been here in a while either, just head down to the community buildings and I'm sure you'll find some things to your liking. I'm going to go give Rogue a break dealing with Marie and Frank."

Gabrielle nodded, "Sounds good."

Sarah smiled, "I'll give you a lift. I'm a bit tired from classes today."

"What are you working on that's so tiring?"

She smiled innocently, "Just a couple of new magic spells."

"Oh really?"

She shook her head as she smiled brightly, "And no I'm not telling you any more than that, it's a surprise."

Gabrielle leaned in and kissed her girl on the nose, "Okay, get some sleep though, you're working too hard if you're getting tired." She watched the girls' teleport with a smile. "Ah well, time to check out the local hangouts."

She glanced around the semi private theater booth one last time before heading down the stairs and out of the theater. She glanced around at the shop signs in wonder. Mystical Menagerie, Bottled Spirits, Pumpkin's Personal Computers, and Lysander's Mystic Tomes were the most interesting shop names currently in view. It had been years since she had last been here, and while some things had remained the same, namely the general layout and design of the "streets", the shops apparently came and went, which considering it had been months of outside time since she had last been here, which translated to multiple decades of inside time, that fact wasn't too surprising. She smiled as she walked down the paths and noticed the various young adults wandering around. Most of the actual adults left the city within a few years of graduating either to set up colonies on other worlds or to go into Avalon's space program. This left the space station with a very high percentage of children and young adults walking around, the vast majority of which were female. Mostly because most of the population sent here was female, and sense neither the pregnancy spell nor the machine could produce a Y chromosome from thin air it tended to stay that way, not that she was complaining. She smiled as she noticed a particularly cute purple haired girl heading toward the bookstore. She had to force herself not to whistle at the pretty girl as she was only wearing a blue and red kilt and a belt pouch made of synthesized black leather. She decided that the bookstore wasn't a bad place to start.

Gabrielle glanced around the "bookstore" with some amusement, she was sure Grandpa Giles would be horrified that there weren't actually any real books in the building. There were however hundreds of thousands of digital books as well as thousands of various T2s or training machines for pokegirl techniques. She smiled as she walked over toward the section that held the spell books and research notes. She glanced at the purple haired girl from earlier that was sitting in a chair looking over some of the magical e-books with the shop's reader. Gabrielle smiled as she grabbed one of the crystals and pulled her own notebook out.

The purple haired girl glanced over, "So, which selection are you checking out?"

"I was just picking up some light reading, figured I would see if there were any new breakthroughs on extra dimensional pocket spells. You?"

"I'm looking for some more attack spells. Oh, oops I almost forget, I'm Jin." She smiled brightly as she offered her hand out.

Gabrielle smiled and took the hand to shake it, "Hi, I'm Gaby, pleased to meet you."

"You any good at attack spells?"

Gabrielle smiled, "I've been known to toss around some combat spells. How are you at extra dimensional pocket spells?"

"I've done a couple of projects relating to them… want to help each other with research?"

Gabrielle smiled, "Sure, why not. Why don't you pull up the schematics for the attack spells you want to learn and I'll give you some pointers before we pull out the extra space spells." She wasn't really sure that the girl would be that much help with the extra dimensional spell research but she did have nice breasts and besides it wasn't like she had much to do in the evenings as Rogue was home from school and could watch the children for a couple of hours in order to give her some time off.

Gabrielle smiled as she teleported home several hours later. She had enjoyed her time arguing back and forth with Jin about the spell diagrams. They had retreated to the coffee shop down the block when they got a bit too loud in their discussion and the friendly but stern shopkeeper had politely asked them to leave. A couple of hours of debate and multiple hot chocolates later and she had finally called it a night, though not without giving the girl one of her e-mail addresses. She glanced around the dining room before dropping her disguise spell. It was a nice change being able to work on a project without someone realizing that she was the queen. Not that she didn't enjoy being the queen but this was supposed to be a vacation, even if it was a working vacation. She grinned as she peeked into the baby's room to check on Marie and Frank and saw Rogue curled up in the large fluffy chair napping. "Awe, so cute."

Temporal fold day twenty:

She was just glad that she didn't need much sleep otherwise she would be screaming about not getting enough. She glanced over at a sleepy Sarah, "Still want to have rug rats?"

Sarah chuckled, "Yes."

Gabrielle sighed, "Damn."

Sarah chuckled, "I know you don't mean that."

"You're right I don't."

She glanced at the notepad Gabrielle was writing on, "So what are you working on?"

Gabrielle frowned, "A list of ship requirements." She tossed the data pad onto the night stand, "Nothing that can't wait until I talk with Sophie tomorrow."

Sarah smiled sleepily, "Alright, can we get some sleep? I know you need less than most people, but you still need some."

Gabrielle yawned, "Alright."

Temporal fold, day 21:

Gabrielle looked up from reading the sheet of plans, "Everything looks good."

Sophie smiled, "I'm glad you approve."

Gabrielle chuckled, "So, any problems with implementing my ideas?"

Sophie shook her head slightly, "No, once I explained your idea the scientists went wild with enthusiasm. The science team is drawing up plans to include a copy of Merlin's mantle in all of the old ships as we speak. The new ships are being designed with that capability in mind."

"I'm assuming you have teams assigned to look into improving the design?"

"Only a couple. Once we finish designing and producing the retrofitting kit for the old ships we'll consider placing more scientists on it, but for now we assumed that it wasn't a priority over tinkering with the Asgard Ion engines. We're still trying to see if there are viable alternatives than wasting ZPM energy to power things in a non emergency."

Gabrielle nodded, "Are the Starwars and Kryptonian technologies much help?"

"Bits here and there."

Gabrielle chuckled, "As long as we don't have ships that have panels that explode when the hull gets hit I'll be happy. I mean honestly have they never heard of low voltage wiring for the computers, lights and such things?"

Sophie shrugged, "I've no idea. Seems to be a clear safety violation though. There was something I wanted to ask you about."

"Oh?"

"Yes, in the mission logs we got from the SGC there was a report about a planet Velona, it had a weapon that was built by an ascended ancient. I was wondering if you could sneak onto that planet and get a full scan of the weapon such that we might be able to reverse engineer it."

Gabrielle frowned, "While I've many protections against scrying and can probably complete the mission… I'm not sure how the ascended would take our stealing the tech. Come talk to me once you have a research lab set up outside of this reality where I'm sure they can't spy on us, and I'll consider getting you your big giant space gun."

Sophie smiled, "I'll work on it."

Gabrielle hugged the girl, "You're the best."

Sophie stuck her tongue out, "Yeah, I know."

Gabrielle chuckled as she headed out.

Willow grinned as Dawn stepped out of the portal and into the portal room at the base, "Everything alright? How did the mission go?"

Dawn grinned as she waved her hand and closed the portal behind her, "Not too bad all things considered."

Xander grinned, "So do I need to mark another tally on the date ruined by demons chart?"

Dawn frowned, "Do evil spirits count?"

He nodded, "Yes."

She sighed, "Damn."

"Is that why Talsanra didn't come back with you?"

"Nah, she decided that she liked wild kinky lesbian sex with cute twin girls better."

Xander blinked, "Did you get pictures? Or better yet a movie? Please tell me you did." He frowned as he realized that she might be upset if Talsanra really had decided to leave, "I'm sorry, is, is she coming back? Or is she staying?"

Dawn shook her head, "Nah, I'll pick her up in a couple of weeks. She's having a blast learning some spiritual techs and some oriental magic, not to mention meddling in the love life of a few other people we met." She hit Xander in the chest with a black movie case, "Make sure you share it with Leah."

Dawn watched Xander run off with some amusement. "Serves him right for starting that attacked on a date board just so he can win at something."

Willow raised an eyebrow, "So what's on the tape?"

"Actually just what I said, as well as some of Ichigo with his two girls. I'm sure Leah will love it."

Willow chuckled, "You're evil."

Dawn grinned as she started to slip out of her clothes, "Yeah, spank me?"

Willow grinned, "Would love to."

Dawn grinned as she pulled a second copy of the movie out of a pocket in her dress before playfully tossing her clothes into the hamper, "Touch me, love me, hold me."

Willow grinned as she picked Dawn up and carried her to the TV room, "Movie day."

Rain chuckled as she glanced up from her book as Willow and a naked Dawn fell giggling onto the couch seat in the TV lounge a couple of seats from her. She noticed the black movie case that the giggling ladies were holding, "So what's the movie?"

Willow shrugged as she let go of Dawn so that she could put the DVD in the player. "Not sure. Dawn brought it back."

Dawn grinned, "Porn, you up for some entertainment?"

"Sure, Jenny should be back shortly, she was just checking on Helen." She set her book on the table and stretched out in her recliner as the home movie started with Talsanra and two unknown cute young Asian girls playing cards in a bedroom. "Oh, sisters?" She smiled.

A few minutes later, Jenny's face turned almost as pink as her hair as she walked into the lounge. She had to force herself not to look at where a naked Dawn was sprawled over Miss Willow's lap. Though it was fairly hard, as right then Willow brought her hand down on Miss Dawn's rosy red behind with a load smack.

Dawn giggled as she looked up at the gob smacked Nursejoy, "Come enjoy the party, Rain needs a girl to play with."

Rain grinned, "Come in, strip and cuddle with me."

Jenny slipped out of her dress by turning into her younger self and simply pulling the now baggy dress over her head. She tossed it onto a table as she walked over toward Rain's chair.

Dawn ran her eyes over Jenny then grinned up at Willow, "I like."

Willow grinned as Dawn yelped as she brought her hand down on the girl's ass particularly hard. She chuckled as Dawn glared at her, "Aww, do I need to kiss it better?"

"Yes." Dawn giggled before going back to watching the card game the girls were playing on screen.

Jenny grinned as she crawled into the recliner with Rain, "No spanking."

Rain smiled, "But you squeal so well when Lilypad or Breena does it."

Jenny blushed even more as Rain licked her fingers before slipping them between Jenny's legs. "Okay, no spanking, at least not tonight."

Willow grinned, "Not exactly sure where to look tonight."

Dawn grinned at she watched Rain play with Jenny, "We can always replay the movie."

Willow grinned, "Good point."

Xander glared at his morning cup of coffee as a smirking naked Dawn walked in to the kitchen, "I hate you."

Dawn grinned, "Most guys would love to see a movie with Talsanra and me fucking like bunny rabbits."

He nodded, "That part was fine, if a little disturbing. It was listening to Anya's continual bitching about how she didn't understand the attraction to twins and just commenting on everything as we watched and played with Leah. The fact that she wanted to try out some of the more frenzied moves of Ichigo and his two girls, some of those hurt just looking, didn't help either. How much lust dust did she use?"

She grinned, "A bit that time, though I assure you that we didn't use any the first time we got everyone together… but Talsanra did offer, and well it's fun as you well know."

He blinked, "Do I even want to know how she talked the girls into it the first time?"

Dawn grinned, "Something to do with a bet, a couple massages and she's damn hot? Beyond that, not sure I want to know either."

He nodded, "So did you and Willow have fun watching the movie?"

"Oh yeah, we ended up watching it with Jenny and Rain… let me tell…" She stopped as he put his hand over her mouth, "I'd rather you didn't… she's my doctor and she likes sharp needles." He shivered.

Sin chuckled as she stirred the breakfast she was cooking for the crew, "Oh please, she doesn't hold a grudge. As for twins, she's obviously never watched Lenora and Lillian having fun with each other, otherwise she would understand."

Willow stuck her fingers in her ears, "So not listening."

Xander chuckled as he watched Willow retreat with her food. He turned to look at Dawn, "So how soon can Leah and I sneak away on that mission you were talking about?"

"Anya still driving you crazy?'

He sighed, "Yeah, she's complaining about Jade almost constantly now. Thinks we should send the little munchkin off to boarding school. She's only five. Other than that, she barely says anything these days that isn't either about the shop or about sex. To be fair, she's been working on expanding the shop a lot lately, but honestly there is only so much shop talk a guy can take."

Dawn nodded, "You could always send Jade to school on the moon base."

Xander nodded, "Might give her a break from her mother, a nice long one."

"I'll send an e-mail to Gabrielle. She was looking into a couple of things at the shipyards, so provided everything checks out, it shouldn't be a problem to get you a spot on a starship and Jade a spot in the dorms."

He grinned, "Thanks."

Temporal fold, 364 days.

Gabrielle smiled as she watched the munchkins crawl around the play area. Every now and then Marie would pull herself up and take a couple of steps before plopping down on the mats again. She was doing pretty well with her whole walking bit. A couple of more weeks and she probably would be walking on her own. She was just sorry that she was going to miss it. She glanced at her watch, "I'm sorry kiddo, I've got to go back and take care of another special girl in my life. I promise the next time I see you I'll introduce you both." She smiled as the door chime rang, "Computer, open the door please."

She smiled as Xander, Jade, Leah and Ivy walked through the door with their luggage floating behind them. "Heya sexy babysitter replacement girl."

Xander glanced back at the girls following him, "I'm going to assume she's talking to you Ivy and not to my five year old daughter."

Jade giggled as she hid behind Ivy.

Ivy grinned as she turned to look at Gabrielle, "Yeah, so can you spare a day to show me the ropes?"

Gabrielle smiled, "Sure, let's get everyone settled. Ivy can have my bedroom and Xander and Leah can stay in the guest room until we get him on his ship."

Ivy grinned, "This is going to be so much fun."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Just keep telling yourself that."

Ivy shrugged, "On the upside, I'll finally be able to work with some other psychic types and learn some more techs."

Gabrielle grinned, "You'll have a great time."

Back on Earth, year 1499 December 30th

Gabrielle smiled as Jenny delivered Helen's child. She glanced down at her watch, "Another couple of minutes and you would have been a January baby." She glanced over at Helen, "So how do you feel?"

Helen blinked as she thought about it, "Tired, sleepy, happy, worn out and wanting my pokeball."

Jenny smiled as she handed Helen's baby to her, "So what are you going to call her?"

"Bella."

Gabrielle smiled, "Pretty name for a pretty girl." She reached out and ran her fingers through Helen's hair. "Get some sleep, I'm not going anywhere."

Helen smiled, "I'm just glad you made it back in time to watch her be born."

"I wanted to make sure I had everything taken care of, so that I wouldn't miss anything for a while."

Helen chuckled, "So it had nothing to do with me looking like a cow and you wanting to have sex with cute young girls while on vacation?"

Gabrielle shook her head, "There were some cute ones, but honestly other than Sarah, I was too busy working."

Sarah nodded, "It's sadly true. She even passed up the chance to rock this purple haired girl's world… I mean seriously hot."

Helen shook her head, "Once I'm feeling better you'll have to tell me about her."

Jenny shrugged, "You should be feeling better by morning, parthenogenic births for pokegirls are like that."

Helen grinned, "Good… can you read me a story?"

Gabrielle nodded, "Of course." She reached over and picked out Helen's copy of the Lord of the Rings. "Let's see, where was I?" She opened the book to where the bookmark was resting. "Ah yes, Frodo and the mountain of doom."


	46. Pocket World

Disclaimer: I don't own Knights of the old Republic nor do I have any claim to any of their characters.

Breena glanced around the space station apprehensively, "Are you sure this is safe?"

Rose shrugged, "If you mean this wreck of a station, probably not. If you mean us stepping into the video game, more or less. Although this is the first time I've tried basing one of my pocket worlds off a specific saved game in a computer game."

Lilyanne chuckled, "Ah come on, it should be entertaining."

Breena glanced at a few of the alien creatures walking through the space station. "Easy for you to say, you're not the one that's going to be fighting the overgrown lizard men."

Lilyanne shook her head, "You're a slayer now, it shouldn't be that bad. Besides, we'll back you up."

"How come I have to come along on this insane adventure?"

Lily grinned at her girlfriend, "Because you're the one that's addicted to Knights of the Old Republic."

Breena sighed, "It's fascinating, it's like playing through history."

"See, you should be ecstatic to be here."

"There is a difference between playing a game and being pulled into the game world by your girlfriend's sister while half asleep."

Rose grinned, "Oh come on, it will be fun. We don't spent enough time together anymore."

"Yeah well, whose fault is that anyways?"

Rose sighed, "Okay fine, between visiting Trista and making trips down to Mexico to help Mist out, I'll admit I haven't put in enough effort." She gestured around at the decaying ex-republic space station they found themselves in. "I'm trying to change that, besides this is a perfect chance to test my powers a bit and see what you can do with some fantastic lightsaber parts."

Breena sighed, "Fine, but I'm holding you responsible if something goes wrong."

Rose grinned, "That's fine. This should be fun."

Lilyanne glanced around as they walked through the halls, "So where exactly are we going?"

"To see about crashing a party." Breena smiled as she opened the door and stepped into the main lounge area.

Lilyanne glanced around at the strange aliens most of whom were playing cards. They reminded her of the groups of demons playing poker that Spike always told stories of, though thankfully without the kittens for ante. "So, what's next?"

Breena sighed, "We have some fun." She glanced at Rose, "How many credits do we have?"

Rose grinned, "You say that with such enthusiasm. As for credits, not a lot but we can probably sell a gem or two for credits and try to win the rest of what we need."

Breena nodded, "I know just the group to piss off." She grinned as she walked toward a group of Trandoshan thugs. She stopped a couple of feet back and waited for two of the lizard like creatures to finish their current arm wrestling match. She smiled as they looked at her disdainfully, "So what's the buy in for the arm wrestling?"

The creature that won frowned, "What are you offering human?"

Breena pulled out a large gemstone, "I have this, perhaps it's worth something to you?"

The creature glanced at his "friends" and whispered back and forth a few times in a strange language before he nodded, "I'll put up a 1000 credits against it, no human can beat a T'doshok anyways." He grinned as he set himself up for another match. The loser vacated his seat and took a few steps back.

Breena grinned as she took the seat offered, "Alright, let's do this." She carefully grabbed the offered hand as to avoid the creature's claws. "So when do we start?"

The creature grinned, "Now." He wrenched on the girl's hand as hard as he could the second he finished spitting out the word.

Breena grinned as she tensed her arm and slowly started reclaiming the ground lost due to the creature's dishonorable start. She didn't really want to make it seem too easy, but she was a slayer and they weren't that strong comparatively, though far stronger than most humans were. She grinned as she won. "Thanks."

The creature scowled before being tossed out of his chair by his "friend" so that the other creature could take his turn.

She smiled, "Well it looks like if you want to win back some of your friends honor then you'll have to put up two thousand credits to fight."

The creature shouted something in its own language before reluctantly fishing out the required credits from its vest.

Rose glanced at the table and whispered, "So how long until they try to kill her to take back their credits?"

Lily shrugged, "I figure not until the last of them lose."

Rose grinned, "That gives us a chance to talk to the merchant."

Lily nodded as she walked over toward the creepy looking reptilian merchant in the corner. "Hi, what do you have for sale?"

He glanced at the table with the arm wrestling going on, "Your friend is playing a dangerous game there… they are sore losers."

Lily shrugged, "It happens, so I've heard that you might have the plans for a cortosis resistant lightsaber, I find myself wondering if they are for sale."

The merchant blinked, "You are remarkably well informed… What did you say your names were?"

Rose shrugged, "We didn't."

He nodded quickly, "Of course, I'm sure I could part with a copy."

Rose grinned, "Good." She glanced back toward the table where the thugs were starting to pull weapons on Breena, "Ah, just a minute."

Breena sighed as the latest loser pulled a blaster pistol and pointed it at her. "No human is that strong, you must be using Jedi tricks to cheat."

Breena sighed as a dark clothed figure in the corner of her sight shifted slightly on hearing the word Jedi. "You just had to call me that didn't you?" She grimaced as she used the force to lift the creature's blaster pistol up as she kicked the table at the creature.

Lily blinked as Rose lunged forward and touched two of the creatures on the back of their scaly heads. She wasn't sure what she was expecting but having them vanish and their clothes and gear fall to the ground without them wasn't it. She quickly pulled her wand and pointed it at two of the creatures, "Expelliarmus!" She grinned when the creatures' blasters flew out of their hands.

Breena grimly shattered the creature's skull with her fist as she lunged forward and smashed the creature that was trying to help the other Trandoshan that the table had landed on get to his feet.

Lagan blinked as he watched one of the young ladies disintegrate two of the aliens with a touch, he really wanted to learn how she did that. He was less startled as the young lady that had been arm wrestling crushed the alien's head with her fist. He had heard of force wielders being able to use the force to increase their strength but it still felt strange to see a light side Jedi do such a thing only to use it to then kill someone, or at least that's what he was assuming she had done. Although if she had, he hadn't felt anything through the force. Still perhaps it was time to take a stand on the current issue, at least that way when the dust settled she might not kill him out of hand. He quickly ignited his lightsaber and brought his purple blade down on the back of the neck of another of the aliens that had been drawing a blaster. He stepped back and raised his free hand in a gesture of peace when she glared at him. "I've no issue with you this day, just enjoying my meal."

Breena swirled around and kicked the last Trandoshan in the throat, crushing what passed for the creature's windpipe and snapping the creature's neck.

Lily shivered as she looked around at the dead aliens, "I'll never quite get used to that."

Rose nodded, "Yeah…" She turned to look at the young man in black robes, "You might want to put your lightsaber away." She resisted the urge to say 'before we take it away,' as she remembered that darkside users were typically very twitchy people.

Lagan sighed as he deactivated his lightsaber, he had seen the ease with which the girl had vaporized two of the aliens, while he might be able to hold her off with his lightsaber and the force, it was becoming apparent that it wasn't really worth a fight. He gestured toward the other seats at his table, "Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot, I'm Lagan you are?"

Rose smiled as she started looting the corpses and equipment pile of the two aliens, "I'm Rose, that's Lilypad and the other one is Breena."

Lily watched several of the other aliens. Most were quietly going back to their games, the rest were trying to exit as quietly as they could. Apparently, violence wasn't that uncommon here. "Sure."

Suvam Tam smiled brightly as he surveyed the pile of credits and other valuables that the girl was picking up from the group of dead Trandoshans that had been bothering him and his customers for the last several weeks. "I have other things you might like in addition to those lightsaber plans."

Rose smiled, "Good good, perhaps after lunch you can show me what you have?"

He nodded, "Of course."

Breena glanced warily at the darkside force user, he wasn't completely corrupt as far as she could tell but he had used too many dark side powers for the Jedi to ever approve of him, not that it took all that much. "Something I can do for you?"

He shook his head, "I could ask how you did what you did, or how your friend did what she did but I don't think you would tell me, so what's the point?"

Breena smiled, "True enough, so what's your story?"

He shrugged, "I was trying to make a living as a member of a smuggler crew, same as most people. Pardon me for saying but you don't look like the typical ship crew."

Breena shrugged, "You know how it is, odd job here and there."

He frowned, "So you're not Jedi?"

Breena shook her head, "Nah, I was too old by the time they found me. Besides the idea of living my life completely for other's benefit didn't appeal to me. What about you?"

Lagan sighed, "I used to be a padawan, sort of fell into a bad crowd and ended up having to make a living…"

Breena nodded, "Such things happen; in different times in different places things might have been different."

He nodded, "So where did you receive your training if not the Jedi temple?"

She smiled, "An ex-Jedi decided he wanted to see what I could learn."

Rose glanced back at Suvam Tam, "So I'm interested in seeing your special wears."

He nodded and smiled, he had intended to sell several of the items to Revan but profit now was better than potential profit later. After all these girls did get rid of the thugs that had been cutting into his business and harassing his customers for a while, "I could be persuaded to part with several very interesting treasures for the right price."

Lilyanne watched the dark force user with some skepticism; while he didn't seem overly hostile, she was still slightly concerned. Personally, she thought that the Starwars universe was a twisted mix of balance gone wrong, forever locking its champions into a narrow view of right and wrong. While she knew this pocket world was based off the computer game, there were enough similarities between it and Breena's actual world to make her nervous of dark side users.

Rose frowned as she glanced over at where the girls were talking to the dark force user, "What can you tell me about Lagan?"

"He mostly keeps to himself; he comes through a couple of times a season with some shipmates. This last time his shipmates left without him, I figure he'll find another crew before too long. Other than that, not much to say, only that he's quiet and respectful. Do you need any help moving your supplies to your ship?"

She shook her head, "To the ship? No, to the hall outside of the ship, sure."

He chuckled, "Understandable."

Breena glanced up as a dark haired beauty walked into the room. She could feel the waves of power coming off the girl. She watched Lagan twitch as the girl looked around and turned to look in their direction. "Hi."

Revan glanced at the two force users before glancing around for Suvam. As he wasn't in his customary spot, she walked over toward the other force users she could sense. "Who are you?"

Breena smiled at the sudden flash of a picture of the future that appeared in her mind's eye, "Name's Breena, Breena Skywalker and this here is Lagan, or so he tells me. What brings you to the station?"

Revan shrugged, while she wasn't normally in the business of telling strangers her business, it never hurt to be polite, besides her reason was the same as most people that came here, so it wasn't like it would stand out, "Same as always, parts and supplies."

Breena smiled, "Same as us then."

He shook his head at Revan's questioning look, "Nah, I'm just looking for work, my last employers and I didn't see eye to eye on a job, it happens. I don't kidnap children."

Revan nodded, "Understandable."

Breena smiled and gestured toward Lagan, "I don't suppose you need another crew member. I bet he can hold his own." She frowned, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be saying things like that, forgive me."

Revan waved the objection off, "Perhaps, actually come to think of it, do you want to share a mug of something and chat? I find myself with a bit of time until Suvam gets back."

He nodded, "I think I'd like that."

Breena smiled as she noticed Rose walking back into the room, "If you'll excuse me, it was nice meeting you."

"Of course." She watched as the strange girl walked off to talk to another girl. She turned back to look at Lagan, "So tell me about yourself."

He nodded and started into a brief tale of his life.

Breena glanced at the crates of supplies, "So what all did you get?"

Rose grinned, "Both of the lightsaber crystals we were after. A compact droid shield we might be able to reverse engineer for use with our power armor or to improve what we have. I figured it was worth it. I also picked up what he called his special blaster project."

Breena raised an eyebrow, "A what?"

"Basically a modified Baragwin Ion-X blaster Rifle, it's some type of alien shaped energy weapon that allows it to deliver concussive force in addition to the weapon's normal energy discharge. I figure we can hand it over to Sophie and see what comes of her tinkering."

"What about the lightsaber crystals and Revan for that matter? Some of those things were supposed to be available to her."

She grinned, "We'll have them back before you know it, or rather before she knows it. Even if it takes years of study we can step back here seconds after we leave if I wanted."

Breena chuckled, "Part of me wishes I could make worlds like you can, and another part of me is very glad that I can't, especially when I think about all of the moral issues that could pop up using such an ability."

Rose nodded slightly, "Yeah, sometimes it's a little scary."

Lilyanne walked out of the cockpit of their small spaceship. The ship wasn't badly designed as far as she was concerned but it could have been a touch bigger, there was just enough room for several bedrooms, an engine room, a cockpit, a kitchen, a common area, a hanger, where they stored their speeder bikes and not much else, still it made for a nice base on missions like this. "So, are you having second thoughts about following Revan around?"

"Just a bit."

"Maybe learning some interesting force powers or perhaps some ways to improve your lightsaber combat?" Lilyanne grinned at Breena.

Breena shrugged, "I do actually know something about fighting with a lightsaber, just not as much as I would like."

"You're just pissed because your brother is better."

Breena scowled at Lily, "No comment. Nah honestly I just figured it might be better to come back after we have the Heart of the Guardian and the Mantle of the Force scanned and duplicated, either that or combined and duplicate that crystal. We'll have a better idea on the viability of such things once we get the crystals back to Sophie and she starts working on them."

Rose rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah if you want to chat with Raven for a while I'll go drop the crystals off."

Breena's scowl turned into a smile, "Do you mind?"

Lily shook her head, "Nah, that's fine." She turned to look at Rose, "Just don't forget about us in here."

Rose grinned, "Hey that only happened to William once… And you're much more important than he is."

Lily grinned, "Good to know." She turned and looked at Breena, "Let's get out of here before she changes her mind."

Rose watched the girls leave with a smile on her face. She chuckled as she quickly typed out a message on her phone for the moon base. She read it over before hitting send. She put her phone away, reached down, touched the crates and shifted dimensions to her landing pad in Sophie's moon base. She smiled at the two girls in overalls waiting for her next to her landing pad. She reached down and picked up the small box containing the lightsaber crystals from where it rested on one of the crates. "Please take these to the experimental tech division."

The red haired girl smiled, "So what did you get?"

The brown haired girl shook her head, "You shouldn't bother the lady. She probably has important things to take care of."

Rose smiled, "It's okay, I picked up a shield generator and an interesting blaster that I thought the tech's might want to take a look at."

"Okay and the box?"

Rose grinned, "Now that's a surprise. Although maybe some day you'll get to see the product of the tech team's research. Run along now."

"Yes my lady." They both said in unison before departing with the supplies.

Rose chuckled as she followed the girls, after all, they were going to the same place, not to mention that they had rather cute behinds. She figured that she just had to find a team that wasn't busy and see if they could duplicate the crystals. Not that it was going to be much a problem as she figured once the techs found the lightsabers packed in the crate they would go ballistic and nothing she did short of a direct order would prevent the geeky lab techs from tinkering with them.

She grinned as she watched Fred unpacking the lightsabers with particular care. It had been a nice surprise to find that she was back with the science department, at least until Illyria got bored and dragged her away some place to go demon hunting.

Fred glanced at one of the lightsabers, "You and your mother bring in the most interesting toys."

A blond haired blue-eyed tech glanced at Fred as she walked in, "You called? Oh, my goddess are those lightsabers?"

Fred chuckled, "Yes."

"Miss Burkle, you're not going to hog all of the fun are you?" She smiled at Fred in an overly pleading manner.

Fred shook her head, "Your specially is artificial crystals is it not?"

The girl's eyes went wide, "Yes."

Fred's eyes turned blue as Illyria's voice came from her mouth, "Good then you will not be completely useless to Fred as she completes her project."

"Honest?"

Fred smiled as her eyes faded back to their normal brown, "Yes."

Rose smiled, "Good, because I've got two special crystals that need to be perfectly scanned and duplicated. I want a crystal that's an amalgamation of the two. Feel free to draft as many magic using girls as you need for the project, perhaps they can figure out a way to align the crystal copies so that they work better."

The lab tech smiled, "So you're assuming that magic can be used instead of the force to align the crystals?"

Rose shrugged, "I don't see why that wouldn't work. You'll also find some plans for an improved lightsaber in with the rest of the stuff. Lexie is still here yes?"

Fred smiled, "Yes, she's enjoying doing some computer research and working on a couple of droid research projects."

"Ah good, I promised Gaby I would stop by and say hello."

Fred smiled as she picked up the box and headed for the scanner, "I'll keep you posted."

Rose smiled, "Thanks."

Revan found herself gazing out of the station's window at the floating corpses of a couple of Trandoshans. She sighed and figured that they were probably a couple of thugs that didn't pay their tabs; she supposed she would have to ask Suvam about it at some point. She was currently doing a bit of thinking while waiting for the rest of her crew to finish their business on the station. On the one hand, she could use more help, but on the other she wasn't sure she had time to take care of a wayward ex-Jedi at the moment. Still if she didn't help him out then he would probably eventually slip further into the dark side's embrace. She sighed; it would have been so much easier to ignore him if the other girl hadn't introduced him. She could have just ignored the guy and continued on her mission. She shook her head, no that was not going to happen. She turned to look back over at where Lagan and Breena were sitting, "Sure, come on, I'll introduce you to the crew."

Lagan grinned, truth be told he was relieved to have a mission again, if just the little bits that he pieced together were anything to go by then it was an important mission, maybe important enough to buy him a touch of redemption, even if only in his own mind.

Rose glanced at the rather tall teenage girl that opened Lexie's door, "Hey Marie, is Lexie here?"

Marie smiled as she turned back and shouted into the house, "Mom, the hooker is here for you!" She grinned as she turned back and looked over Rose's chest, "Unless you're here for me?"

Rose chuckled, "We'll yes, but not that way, at least not today."

Marie sighed, "Damn, but I've been good auntie Rose, honest." She gestured toward the inside of the house, "Come in though, I've got something to show you."

Rose chuckled as the teenager walked back into the house, "Same old, same old." She stepped in and looked around, "It's a lot cleaner than it was the last time I was here."

"That's because Frank and I were working on a science project the last time you visited."

Lexie came down the stairs, "I didn't order a hooker." She turned toward Rose, "Oh hey, how's it going?"

"Pretty good, hooker?"

Lexie rolled her eyes, "She's just being weird. I'll get some sandwiches together, you should go see what she wants to show you before she explodes."

Rose grinned, "Wouldn't want that."


	47. Cards explode?

Rose rolled her eyes as she was pulled by Marie through the house and out to the workshop. She grinned as she looked over the organized chaos that was Lexie and Marie's workshop. She wasn't sure what half the projects were but with the number of bits and pieces laying around it was a fairly large project, either that or they just hadn't cleaned in a while. Both were equally likely. "Okay, I'm here what do you have to show me?"

Marie grinned as she pointed to an award plaque mounted on the wall. "I finally got my mad scientist award." She shrugged, "Well junior mad scientist award but that's almost as good as the real thing."

Rose smiled widely as she walked over to look at the plaque, "Still it's pretty neat. What did you get it for?"

Marie walked over and picked up a toy car off the cluttered work bench, "This actually, well sort of." She smiled as she set the car on the ground, and walked over to a small laptop computer.

"Huh? You got your junior mad scientist award for a remote controlled car?"

She chuckled, "Hardly, you remember me mentioning that I was doing my research project on the Alteran communication stones?"

"Yeah, I read the e-mail while on the ship this morning." She shrugged as the younger girl glared at her, "Okay, so I might have skimmed it. What do you expect with the flow of time being what it is?"

Marie rolled her eyes, "Typical. Anyways the damn things are a complicated mess I don't understand completely but I figured out a way to use some of the basic connection subroutines to allow me to design an interface so that I can control the remote controlled car through a computer." She hit a couple of buttons on the keyboard which caused the car to lurch forward.

Rose's eyes widened, "From potentially anywhere…"

"Exactly, the reconnaissance uses alone are invaluable not to mention the combat potential."

"Nice, you turning it over to the lab techs?"

Marie nodded, "Yeah, it's really too large of a project for one person."

Rose chuckled, "No wonder you're excited."

Lexie smiled as she walked in with a plate piled with cut sandwich bits, "You should have heard her screaming about it when she first got it working. She's calmed down a lot."

"Mom!"

Lexie chuckled, "Well it's true."

Rose grinned, "Just wait until I tell you what I brought back."

"Oh?"

"A personal shield for a droid and some special lightsaber crystals. I already gave them to the lab."

"Sweet."

Marie looked hopefully at Rose, "So are you sticking around for a bit?"

"Yeah, at least until the lightsaber crystals get copied. Well that is if Auntie Lexie can find enough stuff to keep me busy."

Lexie grinned, "Yeah, if nothing else you can help Neville in the garden."

"Great… I'll get my hazmat suit and battle armor." She frowned in thought, "Maybe a chainsaw."

"Oh please, it's been months since anything tried to take your arms off in there. Besides, Neville gets a kicked puppy dog look on his face whenever one of his plants has to be put down."

"Yeah, which for me was yesterday."

Lexie grinned, "True. Benefits of time dilation."

Marie shook her head, "I still think you should just stay here rather than the couple of weeks a year you and Gabrielle visit."

"If we stayed then we wouldn't be the fun older cousin types that get to swoop in and spoil you."

"You're not that much older, a couple more years and we'll catch up."

Rose grinned, "Hey speaking of we, where's Frank?"

Marie shrugged, "He's working on charming the pants off Rebecca."

Lexie grinned in a teasing manner, "Oh, a new girl friend?"

Marie chuckled, "Actually no, just a classmate. She's not exactly the best at enchanting so they were working together. She messed up the enchantment on her pants, and when it came time to test them they wouldn't come off and itched like crazy. He stayed to help, though that was a while ago, I would have expected him back by now."

Rose chuckled, "Purely out of the goodness of his heart I suppose?"

Marie shook her head, "Oh, hell no, she's got a rack like you wouldn't believe."

Lexie grinned at her daughter, "You're just pissed that she likes him more than you."

Marie shook her head, "Hey, no accounting for bad taste."

Rose grinned, "Oh please, your brother…"

Lexie raised an eyebrow, "You know you could at least pretend that you're not trying to corrupt my children in front of me."

Rose grinned as she stuck her tongue out at Lexie, "Oh please, like it was that hard."

Frank grinned as he walked through the door leading into the workshop, "Who are we corrupting? And don't tell dad, he still thinks we're all innocent kids, including mom."

Lexie grinned, "Which is why I love him. So charmed pants removal?"

"Yeah, trying to fix a botched enchantment on her pants."

Marie grinned, "So what color were her panties?"

He grinned as he grabbed a sandwich bite, "What panties?" He popped it into his mouth.

Lexie rolled her eyes, "You're a lost cause." She shrugged, "I think I'll leave while I have a few shreds of illusions left."

He watched his mother leave before glancing over at Rose, "You've shrunk."

"Nah, you're just getting taller."

He grinned, "One of these days I'll be taller than both of you."

Marie shrugged, "Probably, Neville is taller than Rogue, and well mom is mom. So, what do you want to do?"

He glanced at Rose with a hopeful look, "Pocket world?"

She sighed, "Sorry, not tonight. I've already got one open and I've had a long day already."

He nodded, "Well how about a movie night?"

Rose grinned, "Sure, sounds good."

Marie grinned, "Serious or silly?"

Rose shrugged, "What do you have for silly?"

"Attack of the Cloned Lesbians, Tales of the Girl Scout Nookie Patrol…" He shrugged as Rose and Marie both looked at him funny when he mentioned the last one, "Rebecca's sister is in the scouts, it was a thank you present. I haven't watched it yet."

Marie shrugged, "Sure, we can laugh while we tell Rose about our school year."

Several days later~

Qui-Gon Jinn stopped at the edge of the doorway as he watched a mounted mechanical limb cut through a block of replicated stone with a lightsaber. "How are the tests going?" He turned to look at Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan as he stepped into the lab.

"It seems rather clinical though effective." Obi-Wan grinned slightly, "The council would never approve."

Qui-Gon chuckled lightly, "I'm sure they would not. However, I'll admit I can't help but appreciate the quality of supplies they have available for building the rest of the lightsabers."

Anakin grinned, "I even talked Obi-Wan here into replacing his outdated saber though he kept his old crystal."

Obi-Wan chuckled as he glanced at Qui-Gon, "It has sentimental value."

"I could spout off the list of things the council says attachments lead to."

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, "Please don't, it's a long boring list. Besides, I've come to believe that Qui-Gon is right, life for the now with an eye for the future, with a healthy dose of moderation tossed in."

Qui-Gon shook his head, "And if he really believed that he wouldn't still be jumping from one great adventure to the next dragging his poor new padawan along for the ride."

Obi-Wan grinned, "At least she can fly better than Anakin."

Anakin rolled his eyes, "I'll have you know I'm a perfectly good pilot, you just don't like flying."

"Is that what you call it?" He shook his head.

Anakin glanced at his two old friends, "So what brings you by?" He glanced at Obi-Wan, "Last I heard, you were nowhere near Naboo."

He sighed, "Yeah, Xia broke another lightsaber and I figured Qui-Gon might know of a good place to find crystals." He glanced around the rather impressive lab, "When he said he might know a place, this wasn't what I was expecting."

Anakin chuckled, "Not exactly what I was expecting either but one of the lab techs wanted a force user to help test the sabers and Breena asked me because she wanted a second opinion."

Obi-Wan glanced at the mechanical limb wielding the lightsaber, "Do the artificial crystals work better or worse than the rest of the samples?"

"Better, though the attunement process seems to introduce some variation into the crystals. It drives the lab techs crazy."

Obi-Wan chuckled, "I can understand that."

Qui-Gon glanced at Anakin, "Any chance of the lab techs releasing one of their crystals?"

"If she wants to come and get it, I'm sure something could be worked out. Fred is always looking for more test cases. Mostly they just have magic users doing the attunement process and aside from a couple of diehard geeks and a few of the shamans the attunement process doesn't really change the crystals nearly as much as a force user does. We're still trying to find out why."

Gui-Gon shifted slightly when Obi-Wan looked at him for an answer, "Our best guess is they don't believe that it should change and so it doesn't. It's just a weapon to most of them."

Anakin nodded, "I'll go ask Fred if she can speed along the paperwork for getting your apprentice clearance to come."

Obi-Wan frowned as he watched Anakin leave, "So how's his training coming along?"

Qui-Gon smiled slightly, "This the council asking or you?"

Obi-Wan shrugged, "Most of the council has decided to forget about him and you. Though they turn a blind eye when he helps Xia and I out on missions."

"It goes well enough, I even learned a couple of new tricks from some of Breena's friends recently."

"Is that offer of a place to stay still open?"

"Something the matter?"

"I don't know how much you're keeping track of events back home but we're being stretched to the breaking point, even with the clone army…"

Qui-Gon nodded, "The council blew off Yoda's warnings didn't they?"

Obi-Wan scowled, "Yeah, Mace and Yoda protested but the rest of the council decided that the Jedi were the perfect people to be commanders in the clone army."

Qui-Gon took a breath to calm himself, "I had felt something shift in the force before I came here. Is that why you look so ragged?"

Obi-Wan nodded, "Yeah, I've been working on using some of my array of contacts to secure several fall back locations in case the Jedi temple falls. We're hoping it doesn't come to that, but it's better to be prepared."

Qui-Gon nodded, "I can't speak for the leadership here but they are looking for more lightsaber instructors."

Obi-Wan grinned weakly, "Thanks."

Anakin grinned as he stepped back into the lab with a smile on his face, "Fred's sorting out the paperwork needed for your apprentice as we speak."

Breena smiled as she watched Xia through the one way mirror in the wall of the room they had taken to calling the crystal vault. They called it that because that was where they put the thousands of variations of the lightsaber crystals the lab techs had produced in their quest to make the perfect combination of the two artifact crystals they had collected from the game world. She had to admit that the light filtering through the crystals had a claming effect. She glanced over at where her brother was practicing dueling against Obi-Wan. They both had interesting styles, it was sort of interesting to watch someone give her brother a difficult time in a duel. She glanced over at Qui-Gon, "Who do you think will win?"

He smiled, "I don't know, but I don't think it matters. If you'll look, there is no aggression there, no pride, this is just a friendly duel."

She nodded, "He's much more laid back than when I duel with him."

"You're his sister."

Breena grinned, "Hey, someone has to keep him on his toes."

He inclined his head in agreement, "So why two lightsabers?"

She shrugged, "It just felt right, though I'm having a bit of difficulty deciding on the rest of the lightsaber."

He smiled, "To borrow a phrase, 'Mediate on this you must.'"

She chuckled as she held up her hands in defeat, "Alright, alright."

Qui-Gon glanced through the glass at where Xia was meditating, "What do you think of Obi-Wan's new padawan?"

"If she didn't have that ugly padawan braid she would be cute. She's got a sense of humor that the Jedi didn't manage to stamp out. She's polite without being servile. So overall I think she seems like a good fit for Obi-Wan." She frowned, "Are you thinking of taking another padawan?"

Qui-Gon nodded, "Anakin has outgrown the need for a single teacher, though I'll always be his friend and yours if you need."

Breena nodded, "And there are others that need you."

He nodded, "That's what I feel."

She smiled as she looked the older man's face over, the years had been kind to him. Even with the last ten or so years of teaching her brother he still looked young enough to raise a couple more generations of Jedi. "Good luck, hopefully you can stay for a bit to help the girls with lightsaber training."

He nodded, "Of course, at least until Obi-Wan is ready to head back out. I think it's time I got back into the world and stopped hiding on Naboo."

She shrugged, "This is why you're a Jedi and I'm not. I've got no desire to run around policing human matters."

He chuckled, "No, just monsters and demons."

She shrugged, "Someone has to. Which I suppose you can claim the same thing." She glanced up as Obi-Wan glanced around for a new opponent, "Finish this discussion later?" At his nod she headed to the practice floor.

Obi-Wan grinned as Anakin limped off the practice mat, the teenager had been trying to pull off a difficult flip during the fight when Obi-Wan had taken advantage of the teen's distraction and slammed his magical stun saber into the lad's back as hard as he could. It wouldn't actually do any permanent damage but it sure as hell hurt like hell and hopefully it would help convince Anakin to not get over confidant again. He grinned as Breena grabbed two of the practice stun sabers off the counter before heading over to duel. "Are you sure you want to use two?"

Breena sighed, "Not really but my vision showed me two crystals for two different blades, so I might as well start working on learning to wield them both at once."

Anakin winced as he sat down next to Qui-Gon, "Those things hurt."

Qui-Gon nodded, "Still better than using a real lightsaber for practice. How much have you heard about the separatists recently?"

Anakin shook his head, "Enough to know I want no part of that mess. While you've been off world keeping tabs on things I've been chatting with Padme about politics."

Qui-Gon nodded, "I don't blame you, but Obi-Wan could use some help."

"You're going back to the temple aren't you?"

"We can't stay on Naboo hiding forever."

Anakin nodded, "We make trips for Padme often enough. We aren't exactly hiding, still what are you thinking?"

"Obi-Wan has been working on securing a couple of fall back temples incase the worst happens."

He sighed, "You mean if something like the other timeline played out in our world?"

"Obviously you're not going to go crazy and kill everyone but still with the way the war is going, it's going to spawn any number of dark side users. Yoda thinks it might be a good idea to have a fall back temple in case the worst happens."

Anakin sighed, "As much as I don't like to agree with him, he's probably right. Do you want to see if we can get the council's help? Or did you want to get a ship from Padme?"

Qui-Gon grinned, "Considering the shear number of ships the trade federation still has as well as the separatists I don't think it's warlike at all to want to protect our home. Now the question remains do you think Padme can convince the new queen to ask the council for help?"

Anakin frowned, "Maybe, she's sick and tired of having to depend on a corrupt government to send ships to protect her planet. The real question is would the council be able to supply enough support?"

Qui-Gon frowned, "We should probably ask before we broach the subject with Senator Amidala."

Breena winced as Obi-Wan snuck his blade under her guard after using the force to pull the mat out from under her. She sighed, while it wasn't cheating per say, it felt like it. She had to admit that it didn't mean it wasn't a good lesson either. She deactivated her blades and stood up before muttering "Ouchie." She glanced over at where Qui-Gon and Anakin were having their conversation, "If you want, I'll see if Gabrielle and Rose are free tonight. They can make a decision on the allocation of resources."

Anakin blinked as he looked over at where Breena was standing, "I forgot about slayer hearing."

She grinned, "Yeah, helps."

Obi-Wan shrugged, "It wasn't like you were being quiet. Do you think they would go for it?"

Breena shrugged, "I'm not sure, possibly. It depends on how nice of a deal Padme is willing to offer. How much territory they can snag. Can't hurt to ask. I don't think most of their people have much experience in dealing with multi-world politics nor other large organizations. It might be a good test run."

Gabrielle stretched out on the couch in her personal suite as she listened as Breena explained about her and the Jedi's earlier conversation. "You're asking for a lot. We would have to send several ships through just to start up operations. We've collected most of the tech from that world, why should I care?"

Breena sighed, "Because it's my home dimension and I care?"

She smiled at Breena, "Okay, two good points anything else?"

"It would give us valuable training in all sorts of first contact social protocols. Not to mention possible battle field experience we can use against the Goa'uld in this universe. If we took enough area we could potentially use the open space as a testing ground for experimental tech that might be too dangerous to develop back in our universe. For example the infinite energy source or perhaps some new terraforming method. It would also give you a chance to tinker with genetic engineering on a scale that you can't do back in this world because of the ascended ancients. You have been complaining that you need a place to test the new weapon ideas, including that weapon from Velona. This would give you a chance to do all of these things and more."

Gabrielle grinned, "Alright, I'll see about talking to Rose. If we can agree on a reasonable price we'll see about sending a ship over with the materials to build a trans-dimensional super gate. From there it should be simple enough to send some ships through to start the process. This of course hinges on Padme's cooperation and support."

Breena nodded, "Just drop me a line when you get done talking to Rose and I'll have Anakin talk to her about it."

Gabrielle yawned, "Sure thing. Now if you'll excuse me I've got to deal with that before I fall asleep."

Breena chuckled as Gabrielle vanished with a slight popping sound.

The next day~

Rose yawned as she watched the young Twi'lek girl eye the force crystals with undisguised greed. "You can have one, and I'll check your pockets afterwards, so just one."

Mission Vao grinned brightly as she rushed forward with glee.

Rose chuckled as she watched the young girl kneel on the ground in the vault and try to meditate on which crystal she wanted. She glanced over at Breena and whispered, "I could have sworn only Raven, Bastila Shan, Jolee Bindo, and Juhani were Jedi in the game." She was sure of it as she had looked the game details over after almost passing out after she had pulled the characters out of the pocket world. Despite the fact that she had tossed thousands of people into the game's world as a balance of life, she felt that the balance was almost even. She had just been happy that Mist had had some natives that wanted to relocate. Which meant that something was seriously tweaked with the seven people and one droid she had pulled out of the pocket world. She shook her head and pulled her attention back to listening to her sister's girlfriend.

Breena grinned, "We'll I might have used a couple of glitches in the game so that the characters had different classes than would have otherwise been possible. Not to mention some glitches so that they had better stats."

Rose frowned, "That would explain why the world went topsy-turvy on me when I was collecting them."

Breena winced, "Opps, sorry about that. I didn't know that it would make it harder to steal people out of the pocket world."

She glanced over at where Qui-Gon was helping the ex-game people get settled in the lounge part of the room near the training mats. "Fine, now you know. Now that everyone is out and I can't exactly stuff them back in, what exactly did you change?"

Breena grinned, "Well my Raven got a boost in stats over what she should have had. Stupid pre-generated stats, they make me mad. Other than that, there wasn't much I could do, my Revan started out as a scoundrel. I fake leveled her up and snagged her the Master Scoundrel's luck feat and then leveled up as a Consular."

Rose pinched her nose, "Okay, I understand your insane need to tweak the game, that's why I picked your save game to jump into but I don't understand, Jedi Consular?"

"The Sentinel's in the game are a mix of physical and esoteric force skills. The Guardian's are more physical and the Consulars are more esoteric in their skill selection."

Rose nodded, "Okay, I'm going to pretend that I understand that for a minute."

Breena chuckled, "So my Reven was more of sneaky type that used two lightsabers, could hack a computer and repair just about anything. Not to mention having way too many nifty tricks because of glitches."

She grumbled, "It's a wonder my head didn't explode trying to pull her into the real world. What about the rest?"

"Bastila Shan was a Sentinel Jedi, she got multi-classed to a Consular and glitched for a bit of a boost in her force abilities. For Carth Ornasi who was a solider, I would have loved to simply multi-classed him into a Guardian but alas the glitch only allowed me to multi-class him into the same class as Revan. Not the best fit but not really a large stretch as his son was a force sensitive anyways."

Rose shrugged, "He wasn't too bad."

"Jolee Bindo was already a Consular at least according to the game, so I didn't do much with him, just tweaked his abilities a touch with the various glitches. Juhani the Guardian got glitched a touch and got a couple of levels of Consular. It did interesting things for her. Mostly she's sort of a cute cat like girl that's attracted to Revan."

Rose giggled, "Leave it to you to go for the lesbian romance plot."

Breena giggled, "I resemble, I mean resent that remark."

"I think you had it right the first time. You mentioned changing Mission Vao but you didn't say exactly what you did to our new Twi'lek friend."

"I did some tricks to get her a few high powered skills, some attribute glitching and then trained her as a Consular. Same thing with the Wookiee though he started as a Scout rather than a scoundrel. I can't wait to see how they got converted from characters to real people with real skills."

Rose smiled, at least Breena considered them real people already. It would help a lot with their interactions. So what about Lagan?"

"That one was all you, he wasn't one of mine. Though I suspect you introducing him glitched the save game out something fierce. I didn't load it back into the computer to test."

Rose blinked in surprise as she glanced over at where the young man was sitting talking to Qui-Gon about the force. "Huh, I guess I should have realized it might have a ripple effect on the other characters. Doesn't seem like it was anything too serious as everyone made it out alive."

Revan tried to block out the rest of the group's chattering as she mentally reviewed her day. It had started normal enough, or as normal as any of their days of partying were. It had turned a bit strange as two of the people she had met on the derelict station showed up out of the blue. Rose and Breena had showed up at their hotel room and made them an offer that was hard to turn down. It had been a shock to learn about alternate worlds. It was even more of a shock to learn that anyone would want to hire a Jedi that had fallen to the darkside once already. Not to mention the others had equally esoteric skills. It hadn't taken them long to agree to jump worlds, each for their own reasons. She was fairly sure that Bastila was jumping ship because of Carth, and that he was because of the chance to fly interesting ships in the new world. She figured that Jolee Bindo was interested in seeing where his the world is shades of grey mentality could take a group of force users. She didn't really have too many objections to that as the man had a knack for choosing good over evil. She smiled as she looked at her furred cat like friend and lover. It wasn't hard to figure out why she had agreed to come along. T3-M4 was a droid, he didn't see anything wrong with following his owners wherever they went. Mission Vao was looking for excitement and fun, and the wookiee wasn't going to leave her side. It was endearing really. She wasn't sure what to make of Lagan's decision to come but figured it was as simple as a desire to start anew without past failures breathing down his neck. She could respect that. She looked over at where Obi-Wan was explaining the large plan.

Obi-Wan smiled as the group finally settled down and gave him their attention. "The plan is to form a school for force users. After they have learned what we can teach, they'll be free to travel the worlds and live as they want or stay with us to teach future generations."

Bastila stared at Obi-Wan, "What of the Jedi code?"

Obi-Wan nodded, "That's a good question, we'll have to decide how closely we'll stick to it. I've seen too many examples of the code causing problems. Not to mention that the Jedi code might be responsible in a round about way for decreasing the number of force gifted people in the galaxy. No attachments, no marriages means less children born to force sensitive people."

She blinked, "How do you expect to acquire enough students such that the Jedi counsel doesn't just sweep us under the rug?"

He grinned, "I'm glad you asked." He gestured toward where Rose and Breena were standing, "Our friends over there have a device, maybe artifact is the right word that can create a life form based on either a single genetic sample or multiple samples."

Bastila shook her head, "Cloning?"

"No, more like a super fast artificial womb. It spins a person's genetics to create a viable offspring. The offspring are grown to a preset age with a certain amount of base skills already implanted. For example we could have the machine create them as five year olds with some knowledge of the force preset."

Revan blinked in shock as she thought over the combat applications of such a device. "How many?"

"How many can it produce? Thousands, perhaps even millions eventually if we feed enough bio-mass into it."

Revan shuddered, "You could rule the world with that."

He nodded, "You probably could."

Rose smiled as she walked over, "But why would you want to? The paperwork for just a planet alone is insane. Imagine if you will the paperwork for an entire galaxy." She got a couple of chuckles out of that. "Isn't it better to see where things can take you?" She looked around, "You're all extremely powerful in the force, you're all highly skilled thanks to your adventures. We'll never know if we don't try but why not see to what heights we can go? A family, thousands strong, bound by blood and honor. Protectors rather than warriors."

Revan smiled faintly, "You talk a good game but what do you get out of it?"

She grinned, "I get people to call on if I ever run into something I can't handle on my own. I get to see how far things can be pushed. I want to see what we can do when given the chance. A shining jewel to inspire the races of the world. A place without fear, a place where everyone has a home if they want it."

Revan shook her head, "I can't see it working."

Rose grinned, "Maybe, maybe not. Are you willing to try?"

"What's required?"

"Donating your blood and your permission to use it. Your help with teaching the next generation."

Lagan frowned, "It might have been a while since I paid much attention to science class but how are you going to keep the genetic diversity wide enough with such a small sample?"

"The machine takes care of a lot of that by the way it assembles possible children but we also plan to take select samples from other people with interesting abilities from other worlds. With your permission of course."

Bastila nodded, "I would welcome the chance to pass what I've learned on to the next generation."

Lagan shrugged, "I don't know how much good I'll be but I'll help."

Zaalbar the wookiee made a sound that she took for yes.

Rose smiled when Revan reluctantly nodded her agreement. "Good, after Vao finds her crystal you're all welcome to do the same. I'm off to share the good news with Gabrielle."

Padme chuckled as she opened the door to her study and noticed that her sister-in-law was dressed better than she normally bothered, "Official visit?"

Breena grinned, "Semi, if it was truly official I would be presenting the offer to the queen but we know you, and know you know the best way to sell the idea to the Queen. I've got the terms Gabrielle wants for their help."

"Anything particularly horrid?"

"Possibly, we'll have to discuss it with Ferrox the Governor of Rori. They want to build a large city on our moon Rori. They figured that it wasn't a very settled moon but it was livable. They also want mining rights on Behpour."

"Rori I can see as it's close to the planet but what do they want with that acidic hell hole of a planet?"

"Shipyards I believe is the current plan."

Padme twitched, "I don't think that will cause anyone too much trouble. What are they offering in exchange?"

She set the packet on the senator's desk, "It's in the packet but basically they are agreeing to defend the area around the planet as well as the Naboo system in exchange for large land grants on Rori and Behpour."

Padme nodded, "I'll read through it and present it to the queen in the morning. So unofficially what are you and my husband up to?"

"Unofficially? We're building a force user training camp and city. It should be sort of interesting to see once they get through with it."

Padme chuckled, "Alright, I'll see what I can do."

~Two weeks later later~

The Jedi council chamber fell to a sudden silence as the very air seemed to ripple and fill several of the Jedi masters with dread. Something had changed, in that instant they got a glimpse of power, a power that they knew would consume them.

Yoda looked around the council room with a touch of disappointment filling his heart, he had felt a well spring of life centered on a young man. He'd even gotten a glimpse of a city of crystal. He felt power but he hadn't felt anything dark about the place. "Talk about what we just felt we should."

Meanwhile in a separatist camp Count Dooku woke up gasping for breath as the medical team shocked his heart to get it going again. He tried to calm himself but the feeling of doom and death wouldn't leave his mind as fragmented images of a massive warship haunted his mind.

Mace Windu wasn't sure what to think as the pilot of the scout ship came in for a landing on the outskirts of the large crystal structure. The security in the Naboo sector was heavier than he would have expected for a planet in the mid rim. He schooled his face to neutrality as he stepped off the scout ship and was met by a rather tall young human lady with long dark hair and strange black and red eyes. She looked to be dressed in some type of skin hugging synthetic black leather. He couldn't help but wonder at the girl's identity as he noticed the twin lightsaber hilts attached to her belt.

She smiled, "Jedi Master Mace Windu, you have been expected. Where would you like to go first?"

"Who's in charge of this base?"

"That would depend on what part of the city you're talking about. If you want to meet the council I'll take you there."

He nodded, "Yes."

She shrugged and lead him through the passageways toward the council chamber.

By the time he had reached the council chamber he was a bit curious why he hadn't seen any male Twi'leks considering that he had seen hundreds of blue skinned female Twi'Leks in the halls. He had also seen a large number of wookiees. Not to mention several hundred humans walking the halls ranging in age from perhaps five to their mid twenties.

She smiled as she pushed the doors open on a room that was scarcely more decorated than any of the various classrooms they had walked past. "They are in there." She smiled before walking off.

"Thank you." He stepped through and stopped short as he looked over the council. Council was perhaps too strong of a world for it, it looked more like a group of friends gathered together in the lounge of a tasteful club. He noticed where Anakin was sitting on the table talking to a teenage looking Twi'lek. "You're on the council?"

Anakin chuckled, "Oh gods no. I just fill in sometimes when Qui-Gon can't make it. The rest of the time I'm merely a lightsaber teacher and liaison between the council, Padme and Avalon. I also figured you might want a friendly face to show you around."

Mace raised an eyebrow, "How was it you were able to conceal your presence in the force?"

Anakin shrugged, "I've never been particularly good at that, but it just takes a little concentration." He glanced over at Mission Vao, "Now if you want someone that's really good at sneaking."

Vao stuck her tongue out at Anakin, "Hey, not my fault my talents lie in that direction."

Revan glanced toward Bastila before looking back at Mace, "Please don't take this the wrong way, because Qui-Gon speaks well of you, but I'm afraid that how we came to be here is none of your business. It is enough that you know we came from a place far away because Anakin offered us a place to settle. We have no intention, nor design against your council but we will not abandon our members to them nor will we allow you to enforce your archaic rules and regulations on us. As a courtesy to Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon we have allowed you to come here. We will even allow Anakin to give you a tour."

Mace Windu nodded, he realized that legally there wasn't much he could do as there weren't any laws requiring people to send their children to the temple, nor was there any against using the force as long as you didn't commit a crime with it. "A tour would be nice, might I beg a place to stay as it was a long journey."

Juhani's fangs peeked out as she grinned, "We'll even find you something to eat Jedi Master Windu. After all we would hate to be impolite hosts."

Anakin nodded as he headed out, "We'll drop by the cafeteria."

Mace Windu followed Anakin out the doors and walked down the new academy's crystal halls, "Despite the questionable welcome, I'm impressed with what you've done in such a short time."

Anakin chuckled, "Thank you, I'll tell the designers that you appreciate their work. Wasn't really my doing though. I just played messenger boy for the right people. It's designed so that you we can illuminate the walls from the inside as well. Though somehow I don't think you really came out here just to talk about the architecture."

"No I didn't. The sudden appearance of nearly ten thousand extremely powerful force presences though…"

He shrugged, "While I do believe Obi-Wan sent you an invite, unless you want to be a teacher here I fail to see how it's a concern of yours."

Mace glared at Anakin, "Do you intend to help the other systems separating from the republic?"

Anakin shook his head, "I intend to teach my skills in the lightsaber, increase my knowledge of the force and live. If people want to leave the republic that's their business. Of course it's not fair for the separatists to attack the republic but that's what their ships are for."

"You know the other council members will never stand for what they'll see as insubordination. They'll come for this place."

Anakin sighed, "I truly hope that is not the case."

Mace frowned, "I sense no fear in you."

He shrugged, "I hope there is still a little fear, Gabrielle says it helps keep us human. I have however, looked at the darkness in myself and where it could take me and came to a realization. I have more things to live for than just one girl, no matter how incredibly important she is to me. Besides, I'll tell you a secret that I'm sure you already know, worst comes to worst the dark side doesn't give you revenge, it merely steals even more from you until you're a twisted creature that needs to be put down like a rabid dog."

Mace felt a chill travel down his back as he processed what Anakin said. There was something foreboding about how emotionlessly he said that the dark side didn't give revenge. He didn't think the young man meant that he wouldn't get revenge just that he wouldn't have to use the dark side to get it. He pulled his concentration back to the tour, "So how are the young ones doing in their training?"

Anakin smiled, "Always looking for a challenge." He continued down the way until he pushed open a door and held it for Mace. He turned toward a twenty something Twi'lek standing at the front of the room. "Ghost Dia, do you mind if we watch?"

Mace stepped into the room and looked around the large room. There were probably twenty vaguely humanoid looking droids armed with yellow lightsabers scattered around the room. Each of those had a young student with a green lightsaber of their own facing the droids in combat. The rest of the thirty students were leaning against the walls watching the fighting. He vaguely wondered how good the droids were. He nodded to the older girl in recognition when he realized that it was the same girl that had greeted him on the landing strip earlier.

Dia smiled at Mace, "Hello again." She glanced at Anakin, "And no I don't mind dad."

Anakin had to work to keep the relieved look off his face when Mace didn't appear to catch Dia's name for him. It had taken awhile for him to get over the idea that spawning a bunch of children via Gabrielle's machine wasn't cheating on Padme, hell it had taken Padme twisting his arm to get him to finally agree with the project. "Thanks."

Mace frowned, "Ghost?"

Dia smiled, "It's a title, closest equivalent would be Stealth Captain." She flipped a switch on her belt and vanished from view.

"Nice cloak."

Dia toggled the off switch, "Thanks." She turned to look at the students facing the droids, "Droids attack pattern Random One."

Anakin chuckled at the groans several of the students uttered as the droids started attacking the students on the mat.

She grinned as one of the droids spun around and hit one of the kids that wasn't facing him, thereby dropping him to the ground. She turned back to look at Mace's shocked face, "Don't worry about it, they're not really using lightsabers. They're stun sabers, they don't do much more than give you a decent shock and stun the body part they hit for a minute or two."

Anakin winced, "I think I'll agree to disagree on how large of a shock they give you."

Dia chuckled, "Keeps you from wanting to get hit doesn't it?"

Mace was decently impressed the droids seemed to be programmed with a number of different styles and the apparent ability to swap out bits and pieces where needed. Though he noticed that occasionally the droids would sometimes choose the wrong style and get hit. This often caused the droid to either stop moving the limb that was hit or stop moving completely if it was a body shot. "So are they programmed to use the wrong move now and then?"

Anakin nodded, "Not exactly the wrong move, just not always the perfect move for any given situation. They get better as we adjust the difficulty."

Dia shouted, "Put that card down this instance Mia."

Mace blinked as he noticed that one of the girls had a glowing card in her hand and was threatening the droid in front of her with it. The droid seemed more afraid of the card than the girl's stun saber.

Mia scowled, "Someone pushed me. He was trying to take advantage."

Dia sighed, "You know the rules, no charging things enough to actually damage the droids, besides you have lucky number thirteen. He's got a mini tractor beam that he can use to simulate a force push."

Mia turned and glared at Anakin, "Would you please stop upgrading the damn things without telling us?"

Anakin chuckled as he glanced at Mace, "Perhaps you would like to answer her question Master Windu?"

"A dark Jedi isn't going to play fair. They aren't going to wait for you to get your lightsaber out. They'll use everything they can to win. Even if someone else had pushed you, I'm assuming you are grouped like you are to simulate a real fight thus you need to be mindful of your surroundings."

"That about sums it up."

Dia nodded, "Alright Mia, off the floor and hit the showers until you calm down."

Mia sighed as she headed out of the room, "Yes Ghost Dia."

Dia sighed and gestured for her e-pad with her hand. She grabbed it out of the air as it flew over to her. "The rest of you swap."

Mace glanced over at where she was scribbling down notes, "Showers?"

Dia sighed, "Fastest way to calm her down."

"I don't think I've ever seen anything like the glowing card, is that akin to force lightning?"

"Different mentality most of the time, nothing to do with anger or hate." She finished her thought mentally, 'Technically it's not a force power. Makes me wonder if it's duplicable via the force, maybe if we ever get students that aren't related to us we'll have to see.'

Mace glanced over the droids, "How good are the droids on the highest setting?"

He shrugged, "Good enough to give the older students a decent sparing partner but not where I'd like them yet. For example, I suspect that it would take several droids to take out a Jedi and perhaps all of them at once to have a chance against you or Yoda and I'd still bet on you and Yoda every time."

Mace inclined his head slightly, "Jedi have several advantages over droids."

Anakin nodded, "Better than nothing. The older kids often practice against each other or against their instructors, but with the exception of special classes we don't have enough older students to give everyone the time they need."

Dia snapped, "Twelve halt." The Droid with a large number twelve printed on it's chest stopped. "Morgan, hold your saber a bit straighter when you swing like that." She glanced back at Anakin, "Excuse me." She headed over toward Morgan, "If any droid hits me, I'm scrapping them. If any student hits me they can spar with Gabrielle. I hear she's looking for another chew toy."

Anakin chuckled as he opened the door, "So where to next? Food or more lightsaber combat?"

"I ate on the shuttle so perhaps more training."

Anakin grinned, "Sure."

Mace couldn't help but be impressed as he walked into the council's semi-private dueling room and noticed the two girls that were going at it with a green stun saber in each hand. That was until he figured out that one of the combatants, the fiery haired girl, was a blank spot in the force. Yet whatever species she was allowed her to move and keep up with a exceptionally skilled duelist using the force to fight. He wasn't sure if fear was the right word but unease wasn't strong enough. "You didn't introduce everyone before."

Anakin nodded, "The Cathar is Juhani. The old man is Jolee Bindo, the walking carpet is our wookiee Zaalbar. The Twi'lek watching the fight with amusement is Vao. The two love birds in the corner are Bastila Shan and Carth Onasi." He grinned as he looked over at the two girls fighting, "The dark haired girl is Revan and the red haired one is Gabrielle."

Mace was briefly wondering if this was someone's idea of a joke, how else would so many names of legendary heroes be in the same place. They didn't look like they were joking and he was reminded of two other people he had met a few years ago that he couldn't sense. It was looking more likely that one of them could have taken out a Sith Lord if that was how they all moved.

Gabrielle smiled, "Want to step it up a notch?"

Revan sighed, "Not really." She focused her concentration on the dueling until she found an opening and exploited it.

Gabrielle frowned as she twitched her suddenly num fingers, "Yeah, definitely going to include lightsaber resistant gloves in the future if I ever have to duel one of you for real."

Revan grinned, "You did well, a couple of more minutes and I would be on the ground from exhaustion."

"Makes me feel slightly better." She turned to look at Mace Windu, "So did you like our duel?"

He nodded, "It was impressive, I haven't seen its like for many years. You have an interesting place here."

Gabrielle shrugged, "It's shaping up to be an interesting project. I was just sneaking in some dueling practice before I returned home to report to my council."

He frowned, "Where?"

"Let's just leave it at a long ways from here and be happy."

Gabrielle inclined her head toward the rest of the room, "Keep practicing your dueling. I'll want a rematch next time I swing through."

Mace watched as the girl vanished with a pop sound. "Stealth technology?

Anakin shook his head, "Nah, teleportation. She's probably already back home."

He shook his head, "That's impossible."

Revan shrugged, "So is the force and yet it isn't. Perhaps meditation will show you what need to know. I have heard said you have an interesting ability to see shatter points, perhaps if you meditate you will understand why your Jedi council should leave us alone. I'm going to bed, Juhani?"

The cat like girl smiled as she rose and took Revan's hand. "My pleasure."

Mace watched them leave, he wasn't sure but he was coming to suspect that he wasn't going to find the answers he wanted here.

Vao watched in amusement as the JedI left, "He doesn't have much of a sense of humor does he?"

Zaaldar shook his head.

"Ah well, back to practicing I guess."

Rogue tried to scowl but wasn't having much luck, despite the fact that she kept telling herself that it wasn't a real date the twenty something young man beside her was making it hard to stay angry at Lexie for suggesting she needed a boy toy. Still it had seemed like a simple price when the council had asked Remy Lebeau what he wanted for donating his DNA to help with their latest project. No one had expected him to ask for a date with her, a no expectations, no requirements date even. It was a little flattering when she considered he could have asked for just about anything and gotten it. She glanced around the New Orleans streets with interest. It was strange seeing a New Orleans without the destruction of Katrina. She was more used to visiting Willow's home world over the one back in her own world. "Food?"

Remy smiled, "Of course." He gestured toward one of the cafés on the side of the street. "I'm very glad you came." He smiled at her.

She smiled, "I know all about your charm ability."

He smiled brighter, "I'm glad, I would hate to think that you were mine just because of my powers."

Rogue shook her head, "I do have a girl friend you know."

He chuckled, he of course knew perfectly well that she had a girlfriend already, he also knew that she still liked guys because Lexie had told him when she suggested he ask her out. "Gambit has no problems sharing you with another girl."

She shook her head, it wasn't like it was the first time she had heard that, though looking at the devilishly pretty red eyes, it might have been the first time she considered showing someone new in a long time. "You sir are a scoundrel."

He grinned, "You know me so well already."

Marie forced herself to not fidget as she looked in the mirror. Her long purple silk evening dress looked fabulous, or at least that's what her mother said. Personally she was a touch nervous about her date tonight. While it wasn't her first date it was her first date off the station. It felt strange to know that most of the people she had known at the station were either gone off on other missions or were almost twenty years older than when she had left three weeks ago. Yet for her only three weeks had passed since Lexie and Rogue had decided to move home now that school was over. It felt a bit strange, she had seen pictures of Gabrielle's family all her life but actually meeting them was strange, maybe even a bit intimidating.

Frank checked his suit tie one last time before looking over and up at his half sister, "You're fine, though at six foot four, I might not have worn the heels."

She scowled down at the offending shoes, "Isn't it tradition for a night out?"

"For earth in the twenty first century, yes. For Avalon not so much. Besides you could get away with your black boots with a bit of polish."

She scowled at her brother, "You're not just saying that so you can look better than me?"

He chuckled, "To save the crinkle in my neck maybe, there is not a chance that I can pull more than perhaps ruggedly hansom standing next to you." He frowned, "Besides you're tall enough."

She chuckled as she slipped the heels off and dug around for her dress boots, "You're just bitter that you never got taller than I did."

He scowled, "Bullshit, that half an inch counts."

"Even at six five you're still an inch shorter than mom."

He chuckled, "Bitch."

"Boy."

He shook his head, "Yeah, yeah. Speaking of, did you get your date flowers?"

Marie blinked, "That's my job?"

He sighed, "You failed girl school didn't you?"

"Mom didn't say anything about getting flowers."

"That's because she's the girl."

Marie sighed, "Stupid rules."

Lexie grinned as she stepped into the room, "Your dates are downstairs and ready."


	48. Dates and Research

Disclaimer: I got a decent amount of inspiration from Ickybr's Bleeding Realities challenge for the Anita Blake part of this chapter. I'm sure I've said this before but I don't know any of the characters from that series.

Willow chuckled as she watched her daughter's date glide into the room in a long purple silk evening dress that did almost nothing to disguise her figure. She turned and whispered to Lexie who was sitting next to her on the sofa watching the teenagers check their dates out. "Looking that good should be criminal."

Lexie chuckled as she glanced over at her daughter, "That dress comes very close. I'm just surprised that Gaby doesn't tie her up and keep her to herself."

"Oh, is that what you're planning to do to me?" She glanced over to look at her own daughter who looked lovely in a rather short crimson silk dress that barely qualified as a dress as it only came to mid thigh. Still it looked good with her black boots and artfully done hair. She wondered which of Gabrielle's girls had done her daughter's hair up because despite the many things her daughter was great at, fashion just wasn't one of them.

"The thought had crossed my mind." She grinned as she wrapped her arm around Willow, "They do make a pretty cute couple."

Willow grinned as she looked at where Frank was walking toward Rose, "So do Frank and Rose for that matter." She chuckled as she noticed that he had a single long stemmed blue rose in his hand. "Oh, style points."

Frank smiled as he presented the flower to Rose, "For my lady."

"Thanks, now I have to find a vase." She grinned as she left to grab a vase with water.

Lexie chuckled, "Maybe a couple of points. Though, it looks like the girls forgot the flowers."

Gabrielle frowned at her 'Aunt' Lexie, "I knew I forgot something."

Marie chuckled, "Mom, stop teasing my date." She looked over at Gabrielle, "It's okay, I forgot as well."

Gabrielle relaxed, "Well next time we'll flip a coin to see who needs to bring flowers."

Marie leaned over and planted a kiss on Gabrielle's lips. "Sounds like a plan. So are you ready to head out?"

Gabrielle nodded, "Yeah, as soon as Rose gets back." She glanced over at Willow and Lexie, "You two have some fiendish plans don't you?"

Willow grinned, "Guilty as charged. I'll spare you the details but my plans involve Dawn and Lexie here and a hell of a lot of fun."

Gabrielle rolled her eyes at her mother's teasing, "Have fun with that."

Willow grinned, "I plan to."

Rose walked back in without the flower, "Let's get out of here before the girls start whining about us bringing them back stuff." She gestured toward an open space and summoned a portal. "Let's go."

Lexie watched the kids leave with some amusement, "So you ready for some fun?"

Willow grinned as she gestured toward her everyday clothes and changed them into a short black dress. "As soon as we grab Dawn."

Gabrielle smiled as they appeared in an alley not too far from a club. She sniffed at the air and smiled, "Fuzzies."

Marie frowned, "What?"

Rose rolled her eyes, "Were creatures."

Frank frowned, "So where exactly are we?"

"I figured that we would start the night off with a light dinner. Maybe have some fun playing what if."

Gaby frowned, "What if? Where are we?"

"We're in a world that's a twisted amalgamation of Mom's world and the world that Angel is in."

Marie frowned, "How did that happen?"

Rose grinned, "You know that there is a virtually endless number of alternate realities right?"

"Yeah, according to the professors at school anyways."

"In this one, well let's just say the bid to close the hellmouth didn't go as planned."

Frank frowned, "Are you going to give us any more details than that?"

"Other than vampires aren't soulless monsters and were-creatures can shift on days other than the full moon, and that they both have rights? That's about it really; anything else would ruin the surprise."

He chuckled, "Do we at least have enough money to enjoy ourselves?"

She grinned as she passed out black pre-paid visa cards to everyone. "Yes, I traded some gold in and set up an account when I was scouting this world the other day. Just don't go buying any expensive cars or anything and we should be fine."

He grinned, "Sounds good. Where is the first stop?"

"The first step is to get out of this alley."

Gabrielle grinned as she walked out of the alley with her arm around Marie.

Marie grinned, "So how will we know when we get there?"

Gabrielle stopped as she stared at the strip club across the street. "Oh."

Frank chuckled, "As long as this isn't one of those male strip clubs."

Rose shook her head, "Nah that's across town. We might pay a visit to it later."

"Why?"

"Four words, Xander and yummy goodness."

Gabrielle's eyebrow lifted in surprise, "Really?"

She giggled, "Oh yeah, though first you've got to see… wait no I don't want to ruin the surprise. If we hurry we'll have just enough time to find seats before the special event starts."

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "Alright fine, let's go."

Frank grinned as they walked up and got in line. He was just glad that there wasn't much of a line as they looked a bit out of place dressed up as much as they were, though not too out of place all things considered. He wondered briefly if Rose glamoured the bouncer to let them in because he took one look at the ids she flashed and waved them though. He wasn't going to complain, it was his first real date and his first outside of the station so he wasn't going to ruin it by worrying about things that Rose had obviously covered. He smiled as she led them to a table with a nice view of the stage. He sighed as he realized that the dancing girl was making her way off stage as they settled.

Rose chuckled as she looked at Frank, "Don't worry, we're just in time to catch the next act."

"Are they any good?"

"You could say that." She turned to look at the pretty blonde waitress that walked up to take their order. She was dressed in cute little red satin shorts and a flimsy dark blue blouse with the words "Tickle the Witch" written across her back.

"What can I get you?"

Rose looked around, "I think we'll start with some root beers all around."

She smiled as she placed a stack of menus on the table. "I'll be right back with them."

He watched her go with some amusement, "Hate to see her leave…"

Rose chuckled, "But I love to see her go."

Marie sighed, "You're both horrible."

Gabrielle snickered, "At least the help staff is cute. I wonder what the dancers…" She stopped short as she recognized the girl that was stepping out onto the stage. She was wearing a cop outfit and looked positively cute as she danced out on the stage and swung around the pole with a wicked grin on her face.

Marie blinked, "Is that?"

Rose grinned brightly, "Oh yeah, well this world's version anyways."

"She's going to kill us."

Gabrielle smiled as she watched this version of Faith start swaying to the music as she danced around the pole. "Only if we talk about it…"

Frank had to discreetly adjust himself as he watched Faith have her wicked way with the pole.

Gabrielle barely managed to say thanks for the drinks and to order burgers for everyone while paying attention to the girl on stage. It wasn't that she hadn't seen her Faith naked, she had but never quite like this and not in a room filled with strangers. She sipped her drink and put her arm around Marie as they watched the show.

Rose watched with amusement as Faith finished her set and walked off stage as the rest of her group blinked and remembered that they had food and drinks to pay attention to, "So enjoying dinner so far?"

He chuckled, "The entertainment is nice at least." He took a bite of his hamburger and worked on chewing and swallowing it. "The food isn't bad either."

"Good, we should be able to watch another girl while we finish up our food then we should get going. We've got a dance club to hit."

Marie frowned, "It's better than this?"

Rose shook her head, "Maybe, maybe not but honestly I want to do some dancing and this really isn't the place for it. It's not that far of a walk."

Gabrielle smiled, "I could do with a bit of a walk to cool down."

It didn't take the kids long to finish up their burgers and skip out on the next dancing girl, it helped that she wasn't exactly what any of them considered cute or even sexy. Rose grinned as she led the party down the street toward Guilty pleasures.

Frank stopped and stared up at the sign, "Oh hell no."

Rose chuckled as she grabbed his arm and started hauling him toward the building, "Cry baby."

He sighed, "I'm doing this under protest."

Gabrielle scowled with distaste, "Completely agree with you there."

Marie grinned, "Ah come on, just for a bit. You two can face the other way and bury your heads in your soda."

She sighed, "Fine." Which was how she found herself peeking through her fingers at a nearly naked Xander. He was moving across the stage with a fluid graze that her Xander couldn't have matched no matter how much he tried. She sniffed but couldn't get a good bead on what exactly he was as there were too many shifters around to really tell. He didn't smell like a vampire though.

Marie for her part was amused as she watched an alternate Xander dance across the stage. She startled a bit when a dark haired stranger spoke to her, "He is excellent is he not?"

She smiled as she looked the man over. He had very pale skin and long black hair. He was wearing skintight black pants and a foppish shirt that really shouldn't have worked but did. It even had a touch of lace on the sleeves, "He looks a lot like a friend of mine from back home."

The man smiled, "Ah, truly a guilty pleasure then." He looked at Frank with some amusement, "Not your cup of tea?"

He shook his head, "Not so much, no. Still when your date says she wants to go stare at eye candy, well it would be rude not to accompany her."

Rose grinned as she watched the alternate Xander finish his routine, "Nice place."

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "I think I liked the Tickle a Witch better but that's probably just me." He looked over at the vampire that was chatting with her date, "So do you like owning the club?"

He nodded, "Yes, you passing through?"

She smiled, "Just here for a date with my friends, so I guess you could call it passing through. I've got no grievance against you or yours."

He smiled, "Glad to hear it. You should check out our local magic shop, I hear it's got a very nice selection. It would give you a chance to check in and all of that as well."

She forced herself to smile. She knew that that polite suggestion was little more than a command to present themselves to whoever controlled the local magic users on behalf of Jean Claude. Still it didn't hurt to be polite; by the time it mattered they would likely already be gone. "Sounds like a plan, don't suppose you know where it is?"

Rose shrugged, "Don't worry about it, it was next on the list."

Jean Claude smiled, "Glad to hear that you're enjoying the place. But if you'll excuse me."

Marie watched him walk off, "Have you run into him before?"

She whispered, "Uncle Spike talked about his alt a bit over the years. He's one of the better masters of the city, at least in the other world."

"Still can't quite get over the fact that Vampires aren't soulless monsters here."

Gabrielle shrugged, "Alright you saw your dancing Xander, can we get out of here and go dancing?"

Rose chuckled, "Sure."

Jean Claude smiled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone and dialed the Magic Box.

"Magic Box, Willow here how can I help you?"

"This is Jean Claude."

She sighed; he never called the store with good news. "What's wrong? Is Anita alright?"

"She's fine. This isn't about her. More your area of expertise, a group of magic users just visited the club to watch Xander dance. After he was done they left. They all have remarkably good shields, and there was something about them… Something just seems a bit off about them. Not to mention that they knew his actual name and not his stage name. I sent them your way, if you could check them out."

She forced herself to not growl, one just didn't growl at the Master of the City, at least not when you were dating a vampire. "I'll check them out."

He smiled, "Thank you."

She sighed as she closed her phone and looked around the store. "Just great, more vampire crap." She decided that a little backup wouldn't hurt.

Gabrielle blinked in surprise as she walked into the magic shop and looked around. They had spent an hour dancing and having fun before deciding that they probably should check in with the local magic users just to see what the magic scene was like. While she had sort of been expecting to see her mother's alt, what with it being a magic shop and having seen an alternate Xander and Faith already, not to mention Rose's smirks as they made their way here, she hadn't been expecting to find that her mother's alt smelled like a vampire. She also wasn't expecting to see an alternate Tara that smelled a bit like Sylvie. She backed up a step, "You're a vampire?"

Willow frowned as she looked over the group of teens that just entered her shop. "Typically it's considered rude to blurt that type of thing out but yes."

Gabrielle blinked when a slightly older looking Willow walked out of the storeroom, "Honey have you seen that Murlock's essence?"

Vampire Willow grinned, "It's on the back shelf dear."

"Thanks." She blinked as she looked up and noticed the teens, "Hey you must be…" She frowned, "You're not from here are you?"

Gabrielle smiled, "What gave it away?"

"Your magic feels more like magic used too, and less like it does now."

Gabrielle smiled, "That's probably because we're from an alternate world."

Willow smiled, "Really?"

"Really really."

"Any particular reason you were checking out our Xander?"

"Because we have one as well, but damn… yours moves like greased lightning."

Willow nodded, "He's a were-tiger."

"That explains it."

Vampire Willow looked the four teens over, "So how do you fit in with the group?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "I'm Gabrielle Rosenberg."

"I'm Rose Summers and the other two are children of a slayer in the other world."

Vampire Willow grinned, "So who did the other me shack up with?"

Gabrielle chuckled, "Harry Potter."

She blinked in surprise, "Really?"

"Yeah, you ended up marrying Dawn though."

"Dawn Summers?"

"Yeah."

Vampire Willow looked over at the other Willow, "Hot damn, we had good taste." She frowned, "Wait, what about Tara?"

Gabrielle sighed, "In our world she got shot."

Willow felt her beasts pace as she growled, "Warren?"

"Yeah…"

She sighed, "Same in this world the first time around…"

Marie frowned, "The first time around?"

Willow nodded, "Yeah."

"Time travel?"

"Not exactly, more like an event that went backwards in time and forwards at the same time. There are only a few of us that remember how things were before."

"That's got to be weird, what happened?"

"We were attacking the First and the energy unleashed from the amulet Spike had… well it cracked the world and things bled over."

"How does that explain Xander smelling like a were-creature?"

"In our version he lost an eye to an evil priest."

Gabrielle shuddered, "Caleb?"

"That would be the one. Same thing?"

"Thankfully no, but he was a nasty piece of work until Mom called in some favors and got rid of him."

Vampire Willow grinned then said, "Must have been some favor."

Gabrielle shrugged, "Before my time, I just remember the stories."

"Anyways, after the hellmouth closed we realized that the world had shifted and that there wasn't really a need for slayers we decided to enjoy life for a while."

"Okay, I get that vampires have souls in this world but demons and…and…"

"There aren't that many demons actually in this new world, we have about two hundred slayers active around the world taking care of problem vampires or shifters but mostly they either moved out of the U.S. or did what Buffy did and joined the marshals."

Gabrielle shook her head, "That still doesn't explain Tara or Xander…"

"In the reset Tara was born a weretiger, which was why she was running away from her family, so when Warren shot her, she healed. After the last battle of Sunnydale, Xander chose to get infected to heal his eye."

"How did Buffy take it?"

"She held his hand when he got an injection of blood."

"Whose blood did he use?"

Willow shook her head, "Can't say, legally… well infecting people is still a crime."

"So what happened to Oz?"

"He's a proper werewolf in this world. He's still running around with his band."

Gabrielle smiled, "Cool. So what's the deal with Vampire you?"

The Vampire Willow grinned, "That one is all Xander's fault. Vengeance demon granted Cordelia a wish. I got a ticket out of the wish world while Anya was trying to get her amulet back. Once back, well I wasn't happy that things weren't the same as my world. I went about trying to fix it, but things didn't work out. I ended up running off with Drusilla and Spike to go wreck havoc. When the spell hit I came to my senses and came back to my sugarplum here." She grinned at the other Willow.

Willow grinned, "She's sort of cute so I figured we'd keep her. Plus well the offer of immortality didn't hurt."

Marie frowned, "Immortality?"

Rose shrugged, "Vampire marks, human servants, it's a thing."

Tara looked over the group, "You've ran into similar?"

Gabrielle nodded, "Another copy of what the world that yours blended with."

"Interesting."

Rose grinned, "Very, so how's Dawn in this world?"

"She's holding down the fort while our queen Anita is in Seattle tracking down a murderer."

"What is she?"

"Anita?"

"No Dawn. Anita is a necromancer correct?"

Tara nodded, "Yes on the necromancer bit and she's the human servant to the Master of the city, Jean Claude."

"Yeah, at least that's what she was in the other world."

"Probably much the same then. Anyways Dawn is a panwere."

"How did that happen?"

Tara snickered, "That's her story to tell."

Rose glanced at Marie and Frank, "I know we're supposed to be on a date but do you mind if we take some time to visit and swap stories?"

He grinned, "I've love the chance to hear some more stories about the Scooby days of the old group."

Marie grinned, "Sounds good to me."

Rose smiled, "I'm game."

Willow nodded, "Just let me call ahead and then we'll lock up."

In another land another time Lexie, Willow and Dawn walked through the streets of V'saine. Willow glanced around the futuristic city with amusement, "So where to first?"

Dawn grinned, "I figure we would check out Collam Daan."

Lexie frowned, "Where?"

She pointed toward a giant floating sphere off in the distance that floated over a number of silver and blue domes. "To the university."

Lexie frowned, "You're not sticking me in school again are you?"

"Nah, we've only got about two weeks before this world goes to hell in a hand basket anyways, so there wouldn't be much point. We're just here to get some pictures so that we can make portraits for you and Bode."

Lexie blinked as she looked around at the strange city with new wonder, "Then this is the age of legends?"

Dawn grinned, "Well they don't call it that now but yes."

"I thought you were never opening up a portal here again."

"I'm not going to open a portal to the world while the Bore is open or weak, but currently that isn't a problem and won't be for two weeks. I figure that gives us a decent chance to increase our tech and to acquire a great number of portraits for teachers."

Lexie grinned happily, "Both male and female channelers, this should be fun."

Willow rolled her eyes, "We're just here to collect some samples and to snap some pictures not to cause a problem."

Dawn grinned, "Like that will work."

Lexie chuckled as she started walking toward the large complex with the thousand foot diameter sphere floating over it, "We can hope."

Dawn chuckled at the strange looks Lexie was getting as they headed toward the research center. She knew what the problem was but she was wondering how long it would take her friend to figure it out.

Lexie was concentrating on paying attention to all of the channeling that was going on at the college. She couldn't feel individual weaves from this distance but she could feel a general hum of power from the place. She couldn't help but judge the strength in the power of the people that she passed on the street. It was sort of fun to guess from a distance on how strong the various men and women were before they got close enough for her to guess at their strength. She was faintly disappointed when she found that most of the people were even less impressive than Bode strength wise. Though some of them were more, they were all still weaker than our own strength by a large degree. "I thought this was supposed to be the age of legends, a place of strength…"

"Something the matter?"

"I just thought that the people would be stronger."

Willow shrugged, "We haven't seen the top people yet, and just remember power doesn't equal skill."

She nodded, "I know, but still."

Dawn used her hidden camera to take another picture of one of the passing channelers. Everyone had unique talents and the more portraits they had for instructors the better. She really wanted to get copies of all of the top end researchers as well as try to get one of the hover cars to take home. Getting a couple of computers would be nice as well.

Willow looked around, "It feels weird though, so much magic in the air but they don't seem to use it to support the tech base they have. Should be interesting."

Lexie rolled her eyes, "Let's just get some food and see about enrolling in the college."

"We have like two weeks."

"I know that and you know that… but they don't."

Willow grinned, "It does make a good cover."

Lexie grinned, "Yeah."

Mierin Eronaile looked up with surprise as she felt a girl that was as far above her in the power as she was above the weakest of the Hall of Servants. It was unbelievable, it was impossible. In all her years she had never felt such power and strength. She felt rage bubbling up in her as considered how to approach the girl. She had to be a recent find otherwise word of her strength would have spread through the researchers like wild fire. She could easily use her to her advantage if she could make friends with her before anyone else got their hooks into her. She glanced up at the girl, it irked her that the girl was also taller than she was. "You must be new around here."

Lexie smiled at the lady that approached, 'Finally someone decently strong in the power, not nearly as much as I am but a lot closer.' "Yeah, it's a bit breath taking really. So much research going on. So many people that can channel. Not at all what I'm used to. So what do you do here?"

Mierin smiled, "I lead a special project designed to find a source for power that both men and women can use equally."

Lexie smiled, "How's that going for you?"

"We're on the verge of making a major discovery."

"That sounds fascinating, everything here is very interesting."

Willow snickered as Lexie chatted with one of the Aes Sedai. She glanced over at Dawn, "Is this the same world that we grab Bode from?"

Dawn shook her head, "No, I picked a different world to visit. Though our being here has already splintered it off the main time stream."

"So you're saying we could change things, and Bode's world would be the same?"

"Basically yes."

Willow smiled and lowered her voice, "In that case, I think we should do a bit of collecting."

"Oh?"

"Might as well look into grabbing several of the more impressive item makers."

Dawn smiled, "I can support that idea. I wouldn't mind getting a few blood samples either. Be interesting to see what we could do with such things back in the lab. We might be able to figure out how talents are genetically programmed and come up with something to increase them."

Willow chuckled, "I wouldn't hold your breath on that one but it's possible I guess."

"If nothing else we should get pictures of everyone."


	49. Marie's Pet Project

Disclaimer: I'm sure I've said this before but I don't know any of the characters from any recognizable series including dungeons and dragons.

Dawn smiled as she discreetly took a blood sample of the last item maker on her list. It hadn't taken too much effort to get the blood sample while Lexie kept him talking about his latest creation. She had levitated a needle with a pain deadening spell on it and stabbed him with it. She had had a lot of practice over the last couple of days getting DNA samples so that they could try to figure out how exactly this world's magic worked. She made sure to snap his picture a couple of times so that she could get a clear image to turn into a portrait once she got back to the nexus.

Lexie grinned as she listened to the guy talk about his latest creation, a bronze statue of a bearded man holding a book. "That's rather fascinating, maybe one of these days I'll be able to figure out how to make something similar."

He chuckled then smiled in a way she was sure he thought was charming but missed the mark by several feet, "I'm sure you'll figure out the trick quickly enough. You should see Martia Galeran, she makes some very nice creations, plus she could tell you if you have the talent required."

She smiled as she noticed Dawn signal that she was ready to leave, "I'll have to do that. If you'll excuse me, I'll not waste any more of your valuable time."

He nodded as she left with Dawn. "Strange girl."

Lexie grinned as she walked away, "So how's everything going?"

Dawn grinned, "Not bad all things considered. We've got more than enough samples to have a wide range of talents."

"So we're ready to get out of here?"

"As soon as we collect Willow, I think we should step out of the world and reach back in to collect some people."

"Anyone in particular?

Dawn grinned, "Yeah. Bode mentioned some people from the Two Rivers that would be good to collect."

Lexie frowned, "How do you intend to collect them if you can't enter the world?"

"I can open the portal and reach through with magic."

"Point." Lexie looked around, "Are you sure we don't want to take a few of these people?"

Dawn shook her head as they headed outside and around to a rather clear area, "Nah, we need the world to remain more or less the same if we want the large prizes later."

"I'm still not convinced I really understand your plan."

Dawn grinned, "Understandable, but it's more fun this way."

"You're evil sometimes, you know that right?"

"Maybe." She tossed out a thought to Willow, 'Are you ready love?'

'Yeah, just give me a second to finish buying some fancloth.'

'Fine, we're outside the main hall under the apple tree on the west side.'

'Understood.'

Dawn yawned as she settled in to wait for Willow, "So what do you think of this world?"

"I'm a little shocked that we're just going to let everything go to hell…"

"I don't think they would believe us even if we warned them. Even if they did believe us, there is no telling how long they would remember that they weren't supposed to experiment with things."

"I know it just seems rather horrible."

"True, but it isn't our world, and not our fight. We're already going to cause problems enough in Bode's world."

"I know, it's just I'm not really sure we should go messing around with things on this large of scale."

Dawn nodded, "Probably not but I sort of want an army of lightsaber wielding, force using channelers."

"You're joking yes?"

"About which part?" She smiled as innocently as she could.

Lexie sighed, "Take your pick."

"The force using part? Yes, I was joking. Though really, I think a lightsaber would cut through trollocs and fades nicely."

Lexie shook her head, "You really like overkill don't you?"

Willow grinned as she walked up carrying a large bundle of wrapped cloth. "I don't think she understands the meaning of the world."

Dawn shook her head, "Of course I do. It's when you blow up the world to kill a slug."

Lexie looked at Willow, "Exactly…"

Dawn snorted, "Oh please, like you're much better."

Lexie giggled as she ignored Dawn's snort and looked at the bundles of cloth Willow was carrying, "So did you buy the cloth merchant out?"

"Nah, but I bought enough that she showed me the ter'angreal that makes the stuff. Not that we could just pull it out of a portrait but Lexie or someone might be able to figure out how it works by studying it. I also got several pictures of the angreals, sa'angreals, and ter'angreals stored away in the hall."

Lexie frowned, "How did you do that? I asked. Most of that stuff was under lock and key if it wasn't being loaned out."

"I can turn invisible with magic that they can't feel. Opening locks isn't really that difficult either."

"Cheater."

Dawn chuckled, "Speaking of cheating, let's get out of here. I want to see what I can find looking back into this reality from outside." She tossed a portal up that lead back to the nexus. "After you."

Lexie grinned as she stepped through the glowing green portal first, "Don't mind if I do."

Willow carried her large bundle of cloth through before Dawn stepped through and closed the portal once through.

Gabrielle's chuckle was filled with sympathy as this world's Dawn described getting bitten by Anita during sex when she was under the influence of the Ardeur. "Damn."

Dawn grinned, "It's not too bad. Buffy had to finally back off her over protectiveness some when I said I could protect myself."

"How many forms do you have?"

"More than a couple, I can turn into a large white wolf, a cute snow leopard, a fearsome beast of a lion, several different types of tigers and a large polar bear."

She considered the other Anita's abilities and Chimera's abilities, "No snakes?"

"Not as of yet."

"Still that's impressive."

Dawn grinned, "Yeah. At least I'm not any crazier than I was before."

Gabrielle grinned as she looked around the large house, "So what do you guys do for money?"

Dawn shrugged, "I do translation work for the council. The group chips in as well, as we all sort of live here, it's a bit crazy some times."

"Group?"

Dawn nodded, "Yeah, Xander, Tara, both Willow's, a couple other were tigers that are connected to Anita. It makes for a full house sometimes. So what brings you by? I mean other than running into Willow and being invited out here."

Rose smiled as she glanced around, "We figured it seemed like an interesting world to get some lunch and have a date. One thing lead to another. Plus, I sort of wanted to get a sample of blood from several different lycanthropes to see what the lab techs could make of this world's versions. Does being a slayer protect against it?"

Dawn shook her head, "Not really. Might make it harder to catch but if they do catch it, they tend to be dominant types. I would have talked Buffy into being injected with my blood after I caught it but she likes her job too much." She frowned, "If I give you a sample what are you going to do with it?"

"Fix a couple of injuries and keep the people I love alive longer."

Dawn smiled, "I can support that."

Lexie smiled as she watched a naked Dawn mediate. She glanced over at Willow, "How long do you think this is going to take?"

Willow shrugged, "She's combing through a world's history trying to find useful people to take pictures of and get blood samples from. It might take a while. We should probably work on getting a place ready for anyone that we do save."

"What are you thinking as far as places?"

"Well there are plenty of other worlds in Avalon's dimension. We could station them there."

"It sounds better than a space station that someone might rip open while practicing their magic."

Willow grinned, "You want to head this one up?"

"Sort of my type of magic, though not exactly but sure I guess."

"Alright, have some bots start that and get a school and such set up."

Lexie frowned, "Even with droids, it's going to take a couple of days to get everything set up."

Willow nodded, "It's going to take Dawn a while to find everything she needs."

Dawn glanced up, "It's going to take even longer if you keep talking as if I'm not here. Go set things up then go fuck Hermione for a while. I'll let you know when I'm done."

"Fine, we'll leave you to your meditating." Willow grinned as they headed off to find her other wife.

Dawn smiled as she scanned over the other world, if she worked at it she had found that she could open small portals with barely enough room to reach a syringe or a camera lens though without attracting the attention of that world's dark god. She was fairly happy about that as it meant that she could skip through history collecting samples of light side channelers over the last years of the war of power, a time when they actually knew and used combat magic well. The first couple of important samples had been from the site where Lews Therin had destroyed his family. Carefully over the next two weeks she stole blood samples from hundreds of girls and young men throughout the ages from the mirror of Bode's world. She smiled as she finished scrying the world and leaned back against her couch. She glanced over at the case of blood samples she had from the Two Rivers area of the world. "Should be some interesting stuff there, old blood indeed." She yawned as she considered if she was up for the next part of the mission or not. She knew that this world wasn't the same as the version Bode came from but perhaps it was close enough to have some of the same things.

She remembered that Bode had mentioned that her friend Egwene had had a rather painful experience with the ter'angreal that raised a girl to accepted. It had taken some work to flicker through the girl's life until she had found out why the girl hated the thing. As near as she could figure out the magical item used the world of dreams to form a dream version of a different reality. Sort of a what if world. She was less concerned about exactly how it worked and more interested in what the mini world held. While she knew that the mini world would fade away without Egwene in it, at least for a couple of minutes there existed a child that was the product of two extremely strong wielders of the one power, that universe's magic. It wouldn't do to let her fade and vanish without having the chance to shake the world to it's foundations. She smiled as she firmly concentrated on that point in time right before Egwene stepped through the silver arches and out of the mini world. She didn't want to alert Egwene that anything was different after all. Let her have the peace of mind that it was just a dream world. She smiled as she pulled a laughing dark haired child out of the portal. "Hey little one." She smiled as she shut the portal. "Welcome to a better world, Joiya Al'Thor."

The toddler laughed.

"Yeah, you're going to be just fine Joy. You think we should get your 'cousins' next, or your siblings?" She listened to the child's giggling, "I guess that settles that, your cousins, they're older and can take care of you." She held Joy, frowned and wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Gah, of course you had to have a bad diaper when I grabbed you…" She sighed, "Alright change of plans, I change you, get you a bottle then I worry about grabbing the rest of the people on my list."

Willow looked up as Dawn walked in holding a cute dark haired little girl out in front of her like a dangerous explosive device. "She's cute, does she have a name? I thought you were going to wait until Lexie's bots set up the farm?"

"Yeah, it's Joiya Al'Thor or Joy for short. I was going to but I remembered that Bode had mentioned some things that bore checking."

Willow looked at her with a touch of confusion, "So you nabbed a child?"

Dawn rolled her eyes, "Hardly, she's from a pocket world that would have faded out of existence about two seconds after I grabbed her."

Willow frowned, "I think you'll have to explain a touch more than that."

"One of the magical items that world's Aes Sedai have causes pocket worlds or dreamscapes to be built so that they can test their people. I rescued the kid from one of those worlds."

"You planning on rescuing more kids from there?"

"I'm thinking about it, along with some friends of Bodewhin from back home that got killed in her world."

Willow nodded, "Sounds like a plan, as long as you're not taking anyone that anyone will miss I've got no issues with it. Oh, by the way, the kids are back and they got some blood samples you might like, among other things."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'll let her explain about the blood samples. She's even got a video of that world's you and Xander having hot monkey sex."

"Oh… she's got copies right?"

Willow chuckled, "Yes."

Dawn grinned as she handed Joy to Willow and walked out of the room to go find Gabrielle and Rose, "Excellent. I needed a break anyways." She snickered as she called over her shoulder, "Can you change her?" She didn't bother to wait for a reply.

Willow rolled her eyes, snapped her fingers and used a touch of magic to clean the toddler up. "Much better." She grinned at the toddler, "How about we get you something to eat?"

Lexie smiled at Marie, "So how was your date?"

Marie smiled at her mother, "Nice, we got a nice tour of the city and got to hear a lot of interesting stories, we made some friends if we ever go back that way."

"That's good. But you did have a good time didn't you?"

"Yeah, Gabrielle's really nice and we had fun."

"So you think you'll keep seeing her?"

Marie grinned, "That thing she does with her tongue…"

Lexie laughed, "I'll take that for a yes."

She grinned, "How did your trip to the age of legends go?"

"A lot less legendry than I was expecting. I didn't meet anyone with even a tenth of our power, though there were a greater number of powerful people in that time period than there were in Bode's time so I guess that's something."

Marie shrugged, "We can learn their magic style but I don't think our magic is really the same."

"What makes you say that?"

"Other than the whole boy girl split?"

"Yeah, other than that."

"I've never had any issues learning more than one weave for something, have you?"

Lexie frowned as she considered, "Now that you mention it, not really. I know that's something that Bode had to be careful of with the various different portrait teachers. I just figured it was a talent or something."

Marie shrugged, "If it is just a talent than we all have it."

Lexie smiled, "I guess this was a profitable trip after all."

"Oh please, I heard you snagged hundreds of pictures… when can we set up a new hall of learning?"

"As soon as my droids finish building it. We've got a nice world picked out for it. I figure we can base Dawn's project there as well."

Marie shook her head, "I don't know… her project sounds a bit dangerous."

She grinned, "Of course it does, that's what makes it fun."

"You're insane, you know that right mom?"

"What's your brother think of the idea?"

"Of course he likes the idea. But that's not the point."

Lexie snickered, "I'm sure it will work out."

"Do I need to list the number of projects that haven't worked out?"

Lexie rolled her eyes, "Go help Gabrielle tame her harem. You've got a couple of hours until dinner, that should be just enough time."

Marie chuckled, "Fine."

Gabrielle frowned as she looked a Dawn, "You want me to do what?"

"I need a couple of simulacrums made…"

"Can't you make them?"

"Not in the amount needed no. I've got to open the portal, swap the people and then close the portal all in a very short amount of time."

"I don't see why you just don't kill the guy that's responsible for killing them in the first place."

"He's a focus for that world's dark god. I don't know what would happen if I killed him. I can't see the future, I can only read the other world like a book when I'm not in it. If I try something and it goes badly, I can't fix it by just taking it back. It's likely that if I charred him that the White Cloaks he brought there would hunt the area for channelers. Maybe kill a bunch more people than he does. I can't kill him back further in the time line because I already took a few samples of blood from further up the time line than would be feasible to kill him."

Gabrielle sighed, "Fine, I'll help but you'll have to show me the people I need to copy. How long do the copies have to last?"

"A few days, by that time they'll be buried and it won't matter if they turn to mush in a grave."

Gabrielle sighed as she reached out to connect to Dawn's mind, "Alright."

Con Aybara looked around in confusion as he woke up in an unfamiliar place. The last thing he remembered was getting stabbed by the traitorous peddler Fain after the thing had killed his family in front of him. He was slightly conflicted as he reached down and felt the area where the knife had stabbed him and felt unbroken skin. He shivered as he looked around the farmyard he found himself in. There was a stone wall around a large yard and a large stone farmhouse that he had never seen before. It looked as large as some of the largest barns he had seen. Scattered around the yard were all of his family. It took him a few seconds to realize that they were all alive and that they were just sleeping. He blinked in surprise as he realized that even the mountains were different. He muttered to himself, "Where am I?"

Gabrielle smiled as she dropped her invisibility, "That's a very good question."

Con pulled himself up and looked at the strange girl that was sitting calmly on the fence. "What did you do to them?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "I saved them from dying horribly."

He frowned, "Are you Aes Sedai?"

She shook her head, "No, but I have some skills that might be mistaken for one of them."

Con walked over and tried to wake his wife up, "What did you do to them?"

"Sleeping spell, she'll wake after we've finished our chat. I wouldn't want you saying anything you shouldn't."

He glared, "What do you mean?"

She sighed, gestured and created an image of the man standing against the fence post, "I mean that I got your family out before Fain got there. They don't remember any of the torture or other things because they weren't actually there. And none of the rest of the people that were there know that you weren't there and that you didn't die there." She snapped her fingers and dispelled the image.

"Then why do I remember?"

"Because I wanted you to understand, because I need someone to remember, otherwise you just appearing here… Well let's just say that things wouldn't make sense if no one understood that if I hadn't stepped in you would be very dead, along with your family."

He looked at her suspiciously, "What do you want?"

Gabrielle looked over the group of sleeping people. Part of her wanted to just point at Adora and say, "Her." But she forced down the impulse and shrugged, "It's a long story. Mostly though I want you and yours to take a stand and fight against the darkness. In another world, another place Bodewhin Cauthon said that you deserved a chance to spit in the dark one's eye."

He frowned, "All of this on the word of a child?"

She shrugged, "I can't send you back, but perhaps if you train hard you'll be able to make a difference in a different world."

He sighed, "I don't see how we've much choice."

Gabrielle shrugged, "There are always choices."

He sighed, "Fine, start explaining." By the end of the brief explanation he was more than a bit shell shocked. He nodded, "Alright, I don't like it but if what you're saying is true, you saved my family."

She nodded, "Spend some time looking around, spend some time with your family. You'll find that the fields are tilled and planted already, with enough extra the barn in case things go wrong with the first batch. Past the second outer fence are the wilds. You might want to keep the gate locked at night so that animals don't wander in and your sheep don't wander out. Inside you'll find a full cupboard and in the root cellar you'll find cold storage, the meat is plenty safe. I'll talk to you in a couple of days. Have fun, do some exploring." She waved her hands and broke the sleep spell before turning invisible.

Con was distracted from his thoughts as his family woke up and he started trying to calm them down and relating the strange story the girl had told. He figured that after he checked the fields and such that he might try walking elsewhere to see if there was a farm or anything close.

Gabrielle ignored the adults and watched the children interact for a bit before making her way to the next farmstead. It was set up much the same way as the other large stone farmhouse. This one had a horse barn in addition to the barn for storing food. She smiled as a young man waved as she approached, "How are things going Maric?"

"Still a bit strange, no mother, no father but we've got each other. Elnore is keeping Leanna and the other two girls from crying too much and Marie is taking good care of us. At least she can cook better than mother. The place is strange, nothing like home." He sighed, "I'm glad that you rescued us but I miss my parents. It feels like two years only I know it's only been two days."

Gabrielle sighed, "I know, I would have liked to grab your father but I don't think he would have done well without your mother…"

"I don't think he would have. I still can't believe that we're from a dream. I mean I remember my whole life… I remember playing with Elnore in the lake when I was small. I remember tons of books that I've read. I remember riding my horse Mara."

Gabrielle nodded, "Are you sure you aren't sad that I rescued you?"

He frowned as he considered for a couple of seconds then smiled, "No, because if what you're saying is true we have a chance to be in the legends."

She smiled, "Good answer."

"So are we going to have to farm and make a living that way?"

She chuckled, "Oh lords no. We'll get some people in that actually like farming. Speaking of farmers, you've got some new neighbors. They were friends of your mother back in the day. You might want to go say hello at some point."

He nodded, "I will. So how long until the school is finished?"

"Another couple of days and it should be ready. You looking forward to learning how to call down thunder and lightning?"

He looked panicked for a second at the thought of what his mother would say about messing with the weather then his expression turned sad as he realized that she wasn't there to criticize him about such things anymore. He resolved to do the best he could so that when he saw his mother again she would be proud of him. "I'm not sure I would want to mess with the weather but I'm willing to learn."

She smiled, "There we go, that's what I like to hear."

"So how long are you staying?"

"Just long enough to check on Joiya and chat with Marie."

He nodded, "I'm sure Elnore will be happy to hear that things are progressing well with the school. It helps distract her from the fact that there aren't many boys around to fawn over her."

She smiled, "I bet."

He smiled as he headed in, "Well come along."

She rolled her eyes as she followed Maric Mandragoran into the stone house.

Marie smiled as she looked up from where she was giving Elnore lessons on how to deal with the stove when Gabrielle and Maric walked in. "Got the Aybara folks settled?"

"More or less. I figured I'd give them some time to get settled. Maybe after that I can talk Bodewhin into paying them a visit. See about getting their children enrolled in school as well."

She nodded, "So how long are you going to be sticking around?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "I'm just helping set up the project. I figure you, Lexie and Frank will take it over and make it work."

Marie shrugged, "My lab was already boxed up anyways. Though I sort of wish I was closer."

"You're only a gateway away. I'll come visit when I can, and you can come visit us when you can."

Marie nodded, "Make sure you do, otherwise I'm going to tell Helen on you and have her nag you."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Yeah, yeah I promise. No need to be evil."

Maric frowned, "Helen?"

Gabrielle nodded, "My other pillow friend."

He blinked in surprise, "How many do you have?"

Marie chuckled as Gabrielle started counting, "This could take a while."

Elnore shook her head, "You shouldn't encourage him."

"Let's see, Sarah, Helen, Abby, Morrigan, Melody, Marie, Sylvie, Rose and Lenora."

His eyes went wide and his voice took on a note of amazement, "How do you keep so many girls happy… the books don't mention a flawless plan for that."

Elnore chuckled, "So is Frank taken?"

Marie laughed, "Not by us, he's my brother and Gabi doesn't do men."

"He's your brother?"

Gabrielle shook her head, "Nah Marie's."

"Not that being related would stop her if she was interested in guys."

Elnore blushed, "What?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Rose and Lenora are my half sisters and completely fu…" She decided to leave it at that as she headed over to where there were three cribs pushed against the wall of the living room. She ignored the one that held Leanna Mandragoran and focused on the other two.

Maric's eyes went wide, "Oh."

Marie laughed, "You're horrible, you know that right?"

She grinned, "Yep." She looked down at the dark haired girl then over at the girl's half sister. The other baby was just as cute with a mess of dark red hair and a happy smile on her face. "You're going to be really tall when you get bigger." She looked over at Marie, "Well, maybe not compared to some people."

Marie stood up to her full height of six foot five, "Maybe, you never can tell though."

Maric sighed, "I want to be tall like my father when I get older."

Gabrielle smiled, "I'm sure you will."

Elnore smiled, "So do you think that Frank will be around later?"

Marie nodded, "He should be. He was going to drop by the Aybara farm later and offer some help."

"That's nice of him."

Gabrielle smiled, "Yep." She figured it had more to do with favorable first impressions with Adora than it had anything to do with actually wanting to volunteer for hard labor but to each their own.

Maric smiled, "You think he would teach me any other sword moves?"

Marie chuckled, "You'd do better off asking Gabrielle than Frank."

Elnore frowned, "He can't fight?"

"Oh he's quite good, she's just better."

Gabrielle grinned, "I've had a lot of practice over the years."

"If you didn't hit on so many cute girls that were obviously attached…"

Elnore snickered, "She's that bad?"

Marie chuckled, "Let me tell you some stories."

"I'm going to take a walk, be back in a bit." Gabrielle tossed Marie a mental thought, 'I'm going to give Sophie a call and see if she's created more of Dawn's panwere virus yet. If she has I'll see if we can get the other Dawn to come for show and tell or maybe Sylvie.'

'You just want an excuse to fuck Sylvie as much as you can.'

She walked out the door laughing, 'Guilty.'

The days fell to weeks and the weeks fell to months as time slid by for the group of displaced villagers. Things settled down a bit after the Aybara clan met Maric and Elnore. It gave the children something to do besides worry about how or rather why exactly they were there. Con knew and had told his brother and the other Aybara adults but they had just told the kids that an Aes Sedai like Moiraine had saved them and that some day years later they might be able to go back but that it was currently too dangerous for them to return.

As August came around Marie was happy that things had settled down a bit and that she was able to work on some of her own projects again. Not that she had much tech stuff to work on but there were years worth of skills to learn and tricks with the power to sort through to keep them busy. She was rather happy that the screaming hysterics about the young men of the group being able to channel had finally blown over. She had sort of half wondered if Maric would have the ability given who his mother was and that his sister had the ability. It had come as a shock to find out that the other two of the Aybara boys could channel. They would likely have to wait a few years to figure out if Paetram could as well but given that both his sisters could, well let's just say it was a concern that kept rolling around in Joslyn's mind. Marie had been a bit shocked that Joslyn had the ability to learn to channel though she was without the spark. Which wasn't really a surprise given the lady's age.

Unluckily or not depending on how you thought about things Con Aybara didn't have the ability to channel though he obviously had the recessive gene for it or his children wouldn't have been able to channel. It had taken a lot of work and swearing a lot of oaths as well as to prove to the former Emond's Fielders that the source wasn't tainted here. That discussion had pretty much sealed the family's fate as far as not going back to their old world until the source was cleansed. It might have taken a few months but eventually they had decided that they weren't going to stand in the way of their children's path to a better life, especially after they witnessed the "ease" with which Marie helped clear fields and such things with the power. She hadn't bothered to mention that it was still work, though far less than doing it by hand.

September 30th 1500

Maric smiled as a small candle sized flame flickered to life over his outstretched palm. "I did it…" He sighed as it flickered out.

Frank chuckled, "You're doing better."

"It's not quite the same as in the books, the heroes just gesture and call down power whenever they need it."

Frank shook his head, "I've got to get you some other books. You've only been at this for a few weeks. The fact that you're doing as good as you're doing is great."

"Elnore is doing better."

"She's also older and a girl."

"What's being a girl have to do with it?"

"Typically they come into their power sooner."

"She makes my skin shiver when she channels."

"From what I hear that's normal."

"Your skin doesn't shiver?"

"Nope, I see a nice glow around her when she's holding the power, but then my magic is a bit different than yours."

"That must be nice."

"It has its uses."

"Am I the only one that thinks the portraits are creepy?"

"Nah, some of them are slightly unhinged." Frank shivered as he thought about a number of portraits from the male channelers during the war of power. Some of them were seriously nuts even without help from the shadow or taint.

"How many flows can you create at once?"

Frank grinned, "More than one, less than a thousand."

Maric sighed, "Fine, don't tell me."

"I'm not the best person to compare too, my magic is different than yours so I'm not really a good standard. I can help with some of the stuff and make sure you aren't doing anything wrong but other than that, you're better off learning from the portraits, at least until we get some more instructors in here that are flesh and blood."

"When do you think that will happen?"

"A couple of years after you figure out what you're doing and decide to teach."

"Curses."

"Exactly."

Maric asked hesitantly, "If I get good enough with a sword, will you teach me how to forge one with the power?"

"If you work hard enough over the next couple of years to get the title of blade master then I'll teach you, and if you don't have the strength required I'll make you a blade myself."

Maric smiled, "Thank you. Are you going to date Elnore?"

Frank chuckled, "I don't know, maybe, it depends on her and what she wants. I'd probably consider it if she asked. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know, it's not like there are that many people around."

"Well Adora is cute enough."

"True, you could always be like Gabrielle and…"

He shook his head, "You should read less of Marie's trashy romance novels."

"I got bored. Besides, it was before we started working on training."

Frank nodded, "Alright, enough distraction, focus on the flame and call forth a thread of fire."


	50. New Pets

Disclaimer: I'm sure I've said this before but I don't own any of the characters from any recognizable book or series including Dungeons and Dragons, Wheel of time, Buffy, or Harry Potter.

Joslyn Aybara had to work to keep her nervousness under control as she stepped out of the portrait and left the small room that contained the sul'dam and damane's portrait. Even if the image hadn't been moving and talking it still looked detailed enough as to seem almost alive. The fact that she could step into these enchanted portraits bothered her less after a month of doing so than it used to but it was still strange. That part was the least of the reasons for her shivering today and every day she came for lessons with the cursed a'dam. She hated the idea of using them but understood that they were an effective way of training new recruits. Though not for the reasons that the sul'dam would think. While the sul'dam's used the a'dams for inflicting pain, the link they created that allowed for the pain and the control could also be used to keep a girl from channeling too much of the power while she was training.

She was just glad that today had been her last lesson with the creepy sul'dam. The only reason that she had stuck with it was that she hadn't wanted to expose her daughters to the hate that the women felt for girls that could channel and someone had to learn about the leashes. She stopped walking through the hallways of the school as she reached Marie's workroom. She knocked on the door. "Lady Marie?"

Marie smiled as she heard the solid knock on the door, "Come in."

Joslyn smiled as she opened the door carefully, "Apologies for bothering you but I'm done with the sul'dam."

She shivered, "My apologies again, if I could wear one I would do it myself."

She nodded, "Any luck creating some that aren't as twisted?"

Marie nodded, "Only by degrees. Bodewhin managed to create some that only allow a little sensation through and only while actively concentrating on it. It still manages to maintain the control that we wanted so I'm happy. We have had a little luck with the domination bands, not much but some. We managed to make a set that's more like an A'dam than the total mess they are now. Not really what we were looking for but for now it will have to do."

Joslyn smiled, "That's good to hear. I'll go talk to her and see about showing her what I've learned."

"Any thoughts about actually learning to channel now that you're done getting information out of the Sul'dam?"

She nodded, "I talked it over with Con, he said that I should go for it. No sense in wasting the chance, besides it will help with keeping the farm going."

Marie smiled, "There's the spirit."

"If you'll excuse me. I should get back to the farm and check on Adora."

Marie nodded, "Of course, wish that I could have helped more…"

She nodded, "Nothing for it but to press on."

Adora scowled, she didn't care that she was supposed to be in bed resting, she had too much energy to just sit around doing nothing, especially considering her mother had taken her book so that she could get some "rest". Which was why she was busy staring at her newly green eyes in her new large wrought silver dressing mirror with fascination. She knew that her brother had yellow eyes now though she remembered them as brown like most of the people in the Two Rivers area. She didn't care what her mother said, they were neat. She giggled as she made faces at herself in the mirror. She could even see better in the dark than she had ever thought possible. She didn't even mind the occasional thought from the wolves that lived outside of town.

The weirdness had started when her and Maric were out exploring the surrounding land a few days ago. At first she had thought she was going a bit nuts hearing whispers but she had figured out what was going on when she saw the large amused looking white wolf watching her from the forest near town. She remembered wondering what they were feeding the wolves because it had been massive, nearly eight feet long and almost as tall as her shoulders at its back. She had seen ponies smaller than the creature. They had spent the evening talking to the creature and working out a nonaggression pact. It hadn't taken her long before she realized that the wolf was way smarter than any wolf she had ever heard of. Still Snowfall was rather nice all things considered. She planned to spend some time traveling with her later, that is if she could convince her mother that it wasn't way too dangerous for her sixteen year old daughter to be outside the walls. She figured the less said about traveling with large fearsome looking wolves the better. She just hoped her mother would relax in a few days.

Maric frowned in concern at the large needle that Marie held in her hands. "Maybe you'll have to explain this idea again, because right now it sounds a bit crazy."

"I stick the needle into your arm, it should only hurt a little."

"Liar, I remember getting my shots from Lexie last month, it hurt."

"Whiner, anyways after that the stuff I'm injecting will alter your body to be stronger, faster, and more resilient as well as give you the ability to turn into several different types of creature."

He nodded, "Alright, say I believe you, what's the down side?"

"Forced transformation into an animal on the full moon and an allergy to silver are the big ones. Some mood swings and such but really not that bad all things considered."

Meric sighed as he rolled up his sleeve, "Fine."

She smiled as she carefully injected him with Sophie's serum. She figured she would inject Elnore next and bring in the alternate Dawn for some training, and then they would see about injecting other people depending on how things went. She wanted to inject Adora as well to see how the virus mixed with her wolf sister abilities. She figured if everything went well that by the winter solstice they could start creating more children to bring here. She was looking forward to adding to the strength of their army.

Lexie grinned as she watched Adora strip out of her dress and shift into a large white wolf. It looked rather painful but still rather interesting. She felt a moment's annoyance that she was immortal and thus couldn't be affected by the panwere virus. Not that she would give her immortality up for anything but sometimes it was inconvenient. "You ready?" She grinned when the wolf nodded. "Let's go." She took off at a run down the path that lead away from the school and toward the Mandragoran farm. She wanted to test the girl's hunting skills before Marie took her with them when they went to hunt in the Land of the Madmen. She knew that Adora had other forms but she unlike Meric or Elnore preferred her wolf form almost exclusively, probably because of the whole wolf sister thing. They were meeting Elnore and Meric at their farm. Marie had volunteered to watch over the babies for the day while they went hunting. She was looking forward to getting some human looking robots out here but she hadn't gotten around to it yet with everything else going on. She was rather impressed with the kids and how well they were adapting to their animal forms. She just hoped that she could use their success to convince the rest of the children to accept the virus.

Meric smiled as he watched Lexie and the large wolf he recognized as Adora's wolf from come up to the edge of the farm. "I'll go get Elnore." He quickly headed inside to tell his sister and drop his clothes off in his room.

Adora happily ran up and sniffed at the two wolves that came loping out of the yard. She sent images of running and of pack to them. She was still working out the whole talking as a wolf bit but it was sort of fun and different. She knew from previous conversations that while Meric and Elnore couldn't send stuff the same way they could hear her and if she wasn't being too weird understand her. She grinned as she padded back to where Lexie was leaning up against the fence smiling.

Lexie grinned, "Alright, let's go running, I'll run to the edge of town with you but then you're on your own getting to the cave after that." She spared a glance up at the night sky and at the almost full moon, another two days and it would be full enough that they would have to change. She of course wouldn't be running with them during the full moon but she liked to stay in shape and trying to keep up with a couple of teenaged werewolves was good practice. She started off at a sprint and pushed her body as hard as she could. She knew that the only things that made them work to keep up were her height and the fact that she was a slayer and immortal so she could afford to push her body hard. Still she knew that while she might be able to out run the average werewolf the three of them were far faster than normal, most likely because of being dominant panweres.

She grinned as she reached the edge of the cleared area and waved the teens on. She took a couple of seconds to catch her breath then opened a gateway to the cave to get things set up.

Adora smiled as she burst into the cave ahead of her two pack mates. She shifted back to human form and let herself fall onto the stack of furs that Lexie had left for her. She shivered slightly as the cool night air hit her bare skin. If someone had suggested months ago that she would be lying naked on a bear fur in a cave on display without a care she would have hit them with a stick. Still there was something to be said for having the freedom to do what you wanted. She figured a large part of it was the werewolf's nature. They were, according to the alternate Dawn they had brought in to teach them about it, social animals that liked touch a lot. The other part was the lack of social pressure to act a certain way. She felt a little sleepy on changing back to human but not much more than she had felt as a wolf that had just run through the forest and chased down a deer for dinner with her pack.

Meric shifted and rolled onto his fur bed with a chuckle. He smiled at the older girl, "You've got blood on your face from dinner."

Elnore changed back to her human form, "Meric, you're not supposed to say that a lady looks a mess." She giggled as she looked at Adora's face, "Even if it is true."

Meric ignored his sister and looked around until he found a pot of hot water, a couple of towels and some washcloths. He had to admit that Lexie took good care of them. He reached down and picked up one of the washcloths and got it wet. "You want me to fix it?" He smiled as he ran his gaze over Adora's pale skin.

She blushed slightly, "Just give me the wash cloth, I can get my own face. You might want to get your own as well."

He chuckled as he tossed the washcloth to Adora then soaked another for his sister and tossed it to her absently then used the last washcloth for his own face.

Elnore wiped the worst of the blood off her face. "What do you think that our project is going to be after the full moon?"

He grinned, "I don't know but it must be something interesting if Bodewhin is coming to supervise as well."

Adora frowned, "I can't believe she's old…"

Meric shook his head, "She's not that old, no older than thirty or so but she doesn't look much older than Nynaeve…"

"She should be my age, dancing and laughing, not all grown up."

Elnore shrugged, "Just one of those things. I'm really not sure what we'll be doing something interesting though."

He grinned, "Good, you think it has something to do with adding to our pack?"

Adora shrugged, "It's not like there are any more people our age other than my siblings or cousins so probably not."

Meric smiled, "Maybe Dawn will bring some more in."

Elnore shook her head, "I asked about getting more people for the pack and she said we would have to wait and see. She didn't have a problem with us talking your family into it though."

She smiled, "We'll just have to wait and see."

She frowned, "I should have brought a comb."

Meric rolled his eyes, "A bit hard to carry one in wolf form. One night without one isn't going to kill you."

Adora looked at Elnore and chuckled, "Boys."

He sighed and curled up on his fur, "Fine, let's get some sleep."

Lexie yawned as she looked up as the door to her office in the school opened and let in Bodewhin. "What can I do for you?"

She closed the door and flopped down into a chair facing Lexie across the large oak desk. "I'm just debating the wisdom of trying to kidnap people from the Land of Madmen to fill out our ranks quickly."

"I guess we could just restart the time dilated space station and sent a bunch of children through there…"

Bodewhin shook her head, "Nah, it's mostly just labs and such things now as well as automated devices that are still working on pushing the envelope on various technologies we have."

"Thus my crazy idea."

"So have you figured out how to deal with the madness yet?"

Lexie winced, "Yeah, I had Dawn snap a current picture of Nynaeve al'Meara. Marie or I should be able to learn the weave for curing madness, either that or we'll just cycle them through her portrait."

Bodewhin shook her head, "Are you going to tell Meric or Elnore about the portrait?"

"Yes, but only because we figured out a while ago that if you step into a portrait of yourself and touch your copy you merge and get both sets of memories and when you leave you don't leave an image behind."

Bodewhin blinked in surprise as she considered that revelation, "When her spells go wonky they go really wonky don't they?"

Lexie grinned, "I love her, but yeah spectacularly so some times."

"Well in that case, I think I'm in to see how salvageable the people on the island of madness are. How close are you to making workable defense items?"

"I'm working on it. I visited a number of portraits over the last couple of months and I've picked up as many tricks as I could."

Bodewhin glared at Lexie, "You know some times I hate you right? It's not even remotely fair that you can learn anything regardless of talents."

Lexie chuckled, "I know. So does that mean you don't want my ter'angreals?"

"No, it just means that you're a dirty hacker that needs to be spanked."

Lexie grinned, "Anytime you want to."

Bodewhin sighed, "You know it's just no fun if you want me to."

Lexie grinned, "I know."

"So what do you have?"

"A couple of things I think you might like." She sorted through her messy office desk until she pulled out a list. "I created a number of curled up stone cat statues. As long as you're carrying them you move quieter. That's the first thing I'm assigning to the people going. The next is basically magical armor in bracelet form. Think a golden bracelet with large rubies as decoration."

"Oh nice, are we going to be able to keep these after the fact?"

Lexie grinned, "I don't see why not. It's not like we have a council that we have to return them to or anything. Might as well enjoy having a girl that can make you things."

"Sweet, what else do you have?"

"Other than the fancloth outfits and leashes I've got a twisted ruby ring that makes it so you don't glow to others when you embrace the source."

"Sweet, any angreals?"

"Sadly no. I'm still working on the basic theory on how to create those. Martia Galeran, our source for teaching that type of thing, wants me to work on my ter'angreal work some more before she shows me how to make the rest. Even if that goes well, I'm not sure anything I make would be all that usable."

"Why?"

"From the couple dozen different types of ter'angreal I've been able to make that require channeling they all needed either my style of magic or Meric and Elnore working together to make them work correctly."

"So any angreal that you make would require a male female team?"

"It looks that way."

"That's slightly less useful but still worth proceeding with."

Lexie nodded, "That about sums it up."

"Still, I'll take what I can get."

"So is that enough to get you to go have some fun?"

"Yes, as long as you study up on the weaves to heal madness we should be good to go."

Lexie nodded, "I should have that part sorted in a few days."

Bodewhin grinned, "Alright, I'll call Dawn for a lift to the Lands of Madness."

"Land of Madmen actually."

"Whatever. How many leashes do we have?"

"Six full leashes, two each for Adora, Elnore and you."

"What if we capture a male?"

"That's why you're taking Frank he can help stuff them in his magical trunk."

"That seems a touch mean."

"We're trying to cure their madness if we can but honestly not a large priority in the grand scheme of things." Lexie shrugged, "It's more important that you don't get hurt."

Adora looked around nervously at the secluded cove Dawn's portal had deposited her, Bodewhin, Frank, Marie, Meric and Elnore at. "So now what?"

Frank looked around at the cove. It wasn't very large or probably very secure but he thought that it would work as a fallback point. "Now we put some wards up and then as quietly as we can we start sneaking around the island capturing cute girls to drag off."

Marie smiled as she played with her fancloth cloak and rubbed it against her pants to watch the fabric from both ripple slightly. "Does everyone have their concealment bracelets on?"

Meric grumbled, "Why do I need this again? It's not like they can sense my presence."

Bodewhin sighed, "The men can, if you channel or hold the source, so stop complaining. You're lucky that we have enough to go around that work."

He sighed, "Fine, it's not like I can channel enough yet to be all that useful."

Marie shrugged, "Maybe not but your sword arm isn't bad and you can change into a bear and crush people if you really need to."

He glanced down at the ground that he could see through his legs because of the fancloth that was concealing most of his flesh. "If I do that I'll rip my stealth gear."

Marie shrugged, "If it comes to that, I'm not going to care. We can replace it more easily than we can replace one of us."

Adora smiled lightly as she tried to keep the two leashes she had clipped to her wrists concealed under her fancloth cloak but ready to use at the drop of the hat, "Glad to know you care."

Frank frowned, "I wish we had some portkeys."

Marie nodded, "That would be nice, sadly that style of magic doesn't work here."

He grumbled, "Yeah."

"Relax, you have your channeling, still it would be nice to just be able to use a stunner on the people and get things over with quickly." She shook her head, "Let's get this done with so that we can get out of here." She carefully started walking up the narrow path that lead away from the cove. Luckily it was a bit overgrown meaning that hardly anyone came this way.

Meric frowned, "How are we going to find them?"

Frank frowned, "We just head toward the channeling we can feel."

"I'm not getting a real strong sense of direction… there is a lot of it going on."

He nodded, "Yeah, which means that we'll have plenty of people to pick from. Now hush until we get closer."

A bit later as the group snuck around a group of hovels the locals probably called houses Adora was left with the thought that more than just the channelers were crazy. She was starting to wonder if society had fallen far enough that people didn't know how to build proper houses or if they just didn't because people might knock them down in a fit of madness. She looked around at the mud and dirt that covered everything as well as the fish racks filled with fish that were scattered around the hamlet. It had probably started with them just not wanting to but then went to them lacking the skills after a few years of constant destruction. It sure seemed like they lacked the skill to make clothes more impressive than simple fur clothes judging by what the villagers were wearing. Still the village seemed peaceful enough, even though from Dawn's lectures on the place she knew that it would be anything but if they saw outsiders. She carefully made her way toward the back of one of the huts when she noticed an adult drive a dirty red-haired child about as old as her sister away from a stack of fish with a club. The hungry looking child scampered away with a piece of fish like it was a great prize. She watched as the girl ran off toward some light woods on the edge of town. She tapped Elnore's shoulder and whispered, "Did you feel that?"

Elnore whispered from just to Adora's left, "Yes. We have our first target."

Adora moved up the trail a bit after they realized that the man from the village wasn't chasing after the girl. She carefully bent down and sniffed at the ground, "Let's go."

Meric watched in amazement as Adora followed the girl's trail with her nose. His senses had gotten better after becoming a panwere but nowhere near as good as Adora's were. He was proud of how well she had adjusted to the changes in her life lately. He was equally proud of how well her stealth skills were coming as she was able to get within only a pace or two of the girl before the girl noticed that something was wrong and turned to look. Though he had to admit that the fancloth stealth suits made the process much easier.

Adora lunged the last couple of feet and snapped the neck piece of the a'dam she wore on her left wrist around the girl's neck. She really hated doing such but the girl was strong, strong enough that if she had to shield her it would be noticed by anyone fairly close. She was too worried about her surroundings to really want to chance that happening just for one girl.

The girl lunged forward and swung her fist toward Adora's face. The girl had a second to smile brightly before her fist collided with the force field that was Adora's armor. She collapsed as the backlash from the control collar caused her enough pain to put her on her knees gasping her breath. "Bloody hell." She shook her hand to try to get the feeling back in it after punching something that felt like solid rock.

Adora winced slightly as she felt the other girl's pain through the a'dam. "You might want to avoid that." She jingled the bracelet that was part of the leash. "This means that anything that happens to me happens to you."

The girl snarled, "What are you going to do with me?"

Adora frowned, "Take you someplace else, get you cleaned up and get some food in you. What's your name?"

The girl frowned suspiciously at the creature that was only half visible even when she was looking straight at her, "Rasha."

Adora smiled, "Do you want to stay here stealing?"

Rasha scowled, "Everyone steals. If people can't hold onto their stuff you take it."

Adora shook her head and decided to go with a different tact, "Well in that case, how would you like to help me steal some girls?"

Rasha pulled at the leash lightly, "What do I get out of it?"

"Food, clothes and a warm place to sleep, not to mention training on how to use the power."

Rasha glared at the leash, "Fine, what are you looking for?"

"Girls that can channel that wouldn't mind leaving if they could."

She shook her head, "You're crazy to go after the mad ones."

"Why are they mad?"

"Because they play with the men."

"What?"

"They link with the men, they dance with madness to make babies…"

Adora frowned, "Why would that be required…"

"Sister says it's because the men are crazy. Only the strong and brave can calm them and one of the easiest ways to calm them is to lay them or destroy things with them so that they don't assume you should be destroyed. It doesn't always work."

"What about the villagers that can't channel?"

Rasha spit on the ground, "You would expect us to mate with filth? They are crazy without reason, they would come and kill us if they didn't fear us. I'll be feared someday when I'm older."

"So better to mate with madmen that have a reason to be mad?"

She shrugged, "Better to be mad because you have reason."

Adora nodded, "Would it help if we could fix the madness?"

"You don't think we've tried over the years to fix it? We gave up a long time ago and decided to ride the madness, only way to deal with it."

Adora shivered at the look in Rasha's eyes, suddenly she was wondering just how many cards were missing from the girl's deck to borrow a phase from Frank and Marie. "Alright, how well can you channel?"

She winced as she felt sick, "Ugh, what is that?"

"Don't try to channel without permission."

Rasha scowled, "Fine I won't. As for how much, somewhat I'm still learning."

Adora nodded, "So how do we find more girls without getting killed? And keep in mind if I die, you die."

"I know where a group of girls stay with their men, they only started channeling a few months ago so they're not as crazy as some. Not sure what you're going to be able to do with only yourself though."

Adora grinned, "You let me worry about that."

Rasha scowled, "If I tell you can you just let me go?"

She shook her head, "I don't exactly trust you so I think I'll pass this time. How far?"

Rasha pointed off toward the north, "Not far."

Meric frowned as they walked along with the captive girl. So far the rest of the group had kept back far enough that he was fairly sure she hadn't noticed them but it would only be a matter of time. He just wanted to bag some girls and maybe a male or two and get off this island. After all they were just the scout team, any heavy duty 'recruiting' they decided to do here would be carried out a different day. Though he was wondering when they would actually find some people, let alone people that could channel. He was more than a bit surprised when they rounded the next bend in the trail and found that there were indeed people in the clearing. He was rather shocked to find that there were five naked girls and three naked guys going at it with wild abandon. While he was used to the borderland custom of communal bathing he still blushed in embarrassment. He scowled as Elnore reached over and covered his eyes. If he had known this was going to happen he would have picked a different position in the group to be in rather than right next to his sister.

Marie giggled as she watched the group have fun, she was just glad the people's attention was on something other than them because the sheer about of power they were tossing around meant that shielding them was out of the question. While they might have been able to use the A'dams to break the link on the circle she didn't want to chance what effect that would have on everyone involved. She carefully reached out with her power and wove an illusion over Rasha to conceal the girl. It wouldn't do to have the group try to fry their new girl or them before the show was over. She was fairly amused by the show. Three of the girls looked in their late teens maybe early twenties, rather attractive what with their wild red hair and sparkling blue or green eyes or at least they would have if they weren't currently dirty and sweaty. Those three were all leaning up against a couple of large rocks while the three men fucked them from behind. The youngest looking girl, who didn't look much over Rasha's age, was kneeling in front of the other girl facing away from the group while licking the spare girl's crotch. All in all she was more than a little turned on by the display. She felt the ebb and flow of the power as the people had their orgy. She had to hand it to the group of men as control of the circle swapped nearly seamlessly between the males as they tossed large masses of fire into the air as they thrust into the girls. She decided that if they managed to cure the men of madness that they could probably learn a thing or three about circle work from them.

Adora wrinkled her nose as she smelled her group's lust increase. She whispered to Rasha, "How long will this last?"

"They should be about done actually. Though one of the men might take Mashira as well, or all three of them. Though likely not as my sister Kia gets rather possessive."

"Which one is which?"

She whispered, "The girl on her knees with hair like mine is my sister, I know it's a bit hard to see her face."

Marie giggled and whispered back, "Got it."

Frank was finding it hard to maintain his focus on watching for people on the road. Though he noticed that even Elnore was busy eyeing the men like eye candy. Or at least he assumed she was as he could see that her eyes were facing that way. He knew that Bodewhin and Marie were watching the group in case they were noticed, which left him to watch the road as he didn't think that the rest were taking their eyes off the group anytime soon. Someone had to watch the road, he snuck a peek at the two girls in the front of the group. he just wished it didn't have to be him.

Adora smiled as the group finally released the power and broke the circle. She tapped Elnore on the shoulder, "You ready?"

"Yes."

Marie whispered, "Sneak closer and I'll try to slam a shield down on the group, I don't expect it to last long if you can't snap the collars on the girls quickly but it's the best we have." She gave the girls a count of ten to get into position before she opened herself to the power, split the weaves eight ways and slammed a shield down on each of the group of channelers.

Elnore used two weaves of air to help her snake her two collars out and around the necks of two of the girls that had been leaning on the rocks. She then clamped down on their trying to reach for the true source by wrapping both of the girls in a mental blanket of nettles. She would rather have not had to resort to extreme measures but she didn't have time to play nice. She held the image in her mind until the two girls were on the ground not resisting.

Bodewhin for her part simply ran up and snapped her two collars on her targets' necks before they even realized she was there. She spun around and lightly kicked one of the men in the temple, well lightly for a slayer at any rate. She smiled as he dropped like a sack of rotten potatoes.

Adora tackled her target and wrapped her legs around Kia and used that as enough distraction to get the collar around the girl's neck.

Frank reached out with threads of air and tied the men up with cables of air. "Not too bad, all things considered."

"What the hell? Release us."

"You'll pay for this."

Frank shrugged and used a couple more flows of air to gag the man. "We should probably get back to the beach and get through the portal though."

Marie was sort of surprised with how easy it was to convince the people to march. She briefly wished that she could use an A'dam but was glad that she couldn't if it meant that one couldn't be used on her. She wasn't sure why they didn't work as she could link with Bodewhin but figured that she could put off finding the answer to that until another day. She concentrated on maintaining the shield on the three men even though one of them was unconscious.

Bodewhin picked up the unconscious man and started walking, "Let's go guys."

Adora breathed out a sigh of relief as they made it back to the exit site without problems. It had taken some work to get their captured girls through the portal, for some reason they weren't quite mad enough to gleefully jump through a whole in the world.

Dawn smiled as she looked over the new girls with a smile after everyone had stepped out of the portal, "Welcome to your new home. First stop is the healer." She sniffed the air, "Second stop is the showers."

Adora pulled off her hood, "Then can we swap to the other leashes? These are way too hard to deal with when you have two at once."

Marie chuckled, "They're your pets, you're responsible for feeding and cleaning them."

Kia was busy glaring daggers at Rasha, "Why?"

Rasha sighed, "Because I didn't want to die. And they said they would give us real food."

"You should have just stolen more fish."

"I hate fish, I'm hungry enough to eat it but all of the better game is inland in territory controlled by others."

Kia rolled her eyes, "I can't believe you sold us out for food."

Adora smiled, "If it makes you feel better we have really good food. Once we get you all washed and checked out by the healer we'll go get something to eat."

Kia tugged at her leash, "Fine."

Adora smiled as she led her two girls out, "See it will be fine."

Bodewhin shrugged as she led her two girls away toward the doctor's office, "Let's go."

Lilyanne Potter looked up as the new arrivals started piling into the nurses station.

Kia blinked and pointed at Jenny over in the corner, "She's got pink hair. Is that normal?"

Jenny smiled, "Yep, at least for my race." She looked Marie, "So what are we doing today?"

"Just a basic healing spell to clean out toxins and bacteria. We'll come back tomorrow so that you can check their teeth and do a more thorough checkup."

"Sounds good." She moved closer, "Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you."

Rasha looked around the room with awe, "So many things, metal things… you must know some people with earth talents."

Adora nodded, "Yeah we do."

"So does anyone around here know how to cook?"

Lilyanne grinned, "Yeah, I'll have Sin see if she can't whip up something special for you ladies."

Jenny shrugged, "After I heal everyone, I don't want strange pathogens spread all over the base." She frowned as she noticed that Bodewhin was carrying one of the males still. "Is he alright?"

"Might have hit him harder than I thought. You can fix him after you fix the others."

"That works for me." She reached out and tapped Rasha on the arm and used her healing magic. The girl was in surprisingly good health for being as dirty as she looked, most get some type of healing magic used on her now and then. "Next."

Adora was particularly glad to get the group to the showers, especially after they had woken the unconscious male up and he tried to wriggle out of the flows of air binding him. Not that it had mattered all that much because he didn't have much of a chance of get out of it. She figured she would get everyone cleaned up then visit Lexie to see if she could get their madness taken care of.

~Author's note: I'm looking for some suggestions for names for the unnamed teens as well as suggestions as far as talents and abilities and such for them from anyone familiar with the Wheel of Time series.


	51. Remove the white paint from your hat

Disclaimer: I'm sure I've said this before but I don't own any of the characters from any recognizable book or series including Dungeons and Dragons, Wheel of time, Buffy, or Harry Potter.

December 31st 1500

Gabrielle smiled as she read through the notes on the next generation of channelers that were being produced in the lab. They were doing a bit more than just tinkering with height and such things this time. They were trying to figure out which genetic markers went with which talents and abilities. She wished the lab techs luck. She figured that whatever happened, Marie would take care of things on that project. She grinned as she walked through the halls of her base in Avalon. Things were finally starting to settle down as far as rushing to get the walls and other defenses up. Even with an army of droids, building walls around a country sized piece of land had been harder than she had thought it would be. She stopped in front of her mother's door and knocked.

Willow responded, "It's open."

Gabrielle smiled as she walked in, "So how's the search going?"

"We're working on it."

"So where are you headed this time?"

"A beach in Miami Florida, nice world, only a little bit of demonic activity. Still, we might as well check things out, give the slayer her information packet and enjoy the sun a bit."

Gabrielle raised an eyebrow in question, "You and the sun don't exactly see eye to eye these days."

Willow rolled her eyes, "I've got sun block and my shades, okay fine, there is also an unofficial hackers convention that weekend, figured I would go and see if they had any new tricks."

She grinned, "Now that's the mother I know and love."

"Yeah, yeah, just don't tell Hermione, she gets touchy about hacking."

"Ethical reservations and such things."

Willow grinned, "She just doesn't understand how much fun it is."

"Yeah, have fun and stay safe."

"I will, I'm taking Dawn."

"Just make sure you bring Hermione mom back something. Something other than a book."

"But she likes books…"

She shook her head, "Not all the time, get her something fun."

"I'll work on it. How far along are the survey teams?"

"They're still combing through the various archeological sites. It will probably take a few more decades before all of the sites are documented and the mundane artifacts are completely moved to the various museums. Everything magical, as well as the pictures and catalogs are already in the warehouses being looked over by teams of witches. Melody is pretty existed to be running her own project."

Willow chuckled, "You know in the old days we would have been out in the cold doing stuff like this ourselves."

"Oh please, you grew up in southern California, it was never that cold. Not like Washington, though I guess that name would have no real meaning for people here, at least not yet. And besides, that's what we have trained people for. Plus, Morrigan doesn't want me out there alone and she's still for the most part working over in France hunting down priests. I'm stuck here until she gets back permanently, as if the rest of my girls aren't enough protection."

"You could just tell her that you don't need any protection."

"I can't see that going over well. Besides, I get to spoil Bella and Helen this way. Oh speaking of, I should really get to Bella's birthday party otherwise Helen is going to yell at me."

Willow grinned, "Heavens forbid."

Gabrielle shook her head, "See you when you get back mom. You know you're welcome to come to the party."

"I might stop back in for cake."

Dawn smiled as she walked out of the alley they had portalled into and looked around the city, "Ah Miami, well at least one of them."

Willow looked back down the alley and scrunched her nose up, "I forget how nice the air is back home until I get some place with cars and pollution again."

Dawn looked around at the part of the city she could see. "It could be worse, at least it's not a hell dimension. Where to first?"

"I can feel the slayer over in that direction." She pointed off down the street.

"Not that that direction tells us much."

"I'll know more when we're closer."

Lenora giggled as she watched Bella work on eating her slice of birthday cake at the living room table. "She's so cute."

Helen grinned down at her daughter, "Yeah, I can't believe it's already been a year."

"Time flies when you're having fun."

Gabrielle smiled at Helen from where she was sitting on the sofa curled up with Sarah. "So now that the official festivities are wrapping up and there isn't any sign of Willow or Dawn mom, what should we be doing?"

Lenora smiled, "We could always play with polyjuice potion and have wild kinky sex."

Rose grinned, "While that might be fun, we could always go play with the new girls Adora is breaking in."

Lillian frowned, "Who do you have for the polyjuice potion?"

Lenora frowned, "Not sure actually." She looked over at Gabrielle, "Do we have the hairs of anyone interesting?"

She grinned, "You mean other than Willow or Hermione?"

Rose grinned, "Kinky."

Lenora rolled her eyes, "You're just sick."

Rose grinned, "Probably."

Lillian shook her head, "In that case let's go have fun with Marie, Adora and their pets."

Gabrielle frowned, "Rasha's sister Kia bites…"

She smiled, "We could always gag her."

Lenora grinned as she reached out and kissed her sister, "Sister fun." She grinned at Gabrielle, "Besides you like biting people love, just bite them back."

Lillian grinned, "We should probably bring the strap on for Rasha."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Leo is going to kill us for doing this without him."

Rose chuckled, "We'll bring a video camera. Maybe we can get their friend Mashira in on the action as well."

Lillian sighed, "I just wi…" She frowned as she reconsidered saying the wish word even though they were fairly sure there weren't any vengeance demons in their new world. "It would have been nice if the guys and their fuck buddies hadn't decided to go back home and cure more of the island of madness."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I'll take what I can get, besides the guys aren't a great loss."

Lillian chuckled, "Not to you."

"Point. On the upside if they're fixing people they might be of help for the final battle on that world."

Rose shrugged, "So would a ship with some high yield explosives."

Helen shook her head, "Enough of the blowing things up talk. Let's get going."

Gabrielle grinned, "Sounds good."

Leo Potter sighed as he looked over the collection of dusty scrolls in the basement of the old Irish castle. "Did you find anything?"

Mortalis Black shrugged his large bear like shoulders, "None of the local spirits have heard anything, or they're not telling."

Tiffany grinned, "Hey master, if I find it do I get something special?"

He grumbled, "Yes."

She giggled as she bounced over to him and held up a scroll, "I want something really special."

He opened the text and started reading through it, "At least the scroll is in Latin rather than something else."

Tiffany played with her long rabbit ears as she waited for Leo to read through the scroll and get to the part about the old Irish kings controlling the Fae in the country and about how they could set them free.

"If this is right, all we need to do is find the man responsible for this mess and either kill him or get him to revoke it."

She grinned happily, "Can we get out of this dust filled dungeon now?"

"Yeah." He started sweeping the scrolls into his expanded bag.

"Better not let Giles see you doing that."

He scowled, "Fine, I'll be careful and we can pack each and every one of them in this dust filled library."

She sighed, "One second thought, a touch of magic should restore the scrolls to perfect shape long enough to copy and sort them once we're back."

He smiled, "Exactly."

Mortalis nodded, "So where to now?"

"Now we pack up and get out of here before they realize that we learned what we did."

"It's not like we learned much of use. We already figured it was something like that."

"Ah but now we have which family and a line, and I know where their castle is."

Mortalis Black smiled, "So does this mean we'll finally get to meet your reinforcements?"

"Yes." He smiled, "I'm tired of this mess. I want to enjoy my time in England, not run around the countryside in the dead of winter. One good strike could put things back to a place where we could force a peace. So yeah, I'll be calling in the large guns on this one. I hope you're not offended."

He shook his head, "We did our job, we fought, we found the information and if someone else can wrap this up quickly then you'll hear no complaints from me."

He smiled, "Good."

Gabrielle watched with amusement as she watched Adora run a comb through Rasha's long red hair. It was sort of cute watching the naked twelve year old try to figure out if she should grumble at the attention or be happy with the affection. They were currently sprawled around the inside of Adora's pack's cave on her world. It wasn't actually as bad as she had thought it would be. The pack had done a lot of work on the cave with the power. The floor had been smoothed out and the walls braced. Even the furs that were scattered around the place as beds and chairs were cleaned on a fairly regular basis. She was just happy that after a few weeks of training they had been able to remove the collars and the girls had decided to stay of their own freewill. It was bad enough that they had kidnapped them in the first place, holding them against their will would have been wrong. She turned to look at where Elnore was brushing Mashira's hair. "Having fun?"

Elnore giggled as she worked on making sure all of the tangles were out of the other girl's hair. "Yeah, though I'm sad that the boys left."

Frank rolled his eyes from his spot near the fire pit. Not that they ever actually did more than place a ball of fire there and tie it off. "What am I chopped liver?"

She rolled her eyes, "No but it was fun watching the guys and their girls."

Marie grinned as she pulled Kia close and snaked her hand down to the girl's crotch to start teasing the girl slowly. "You could always recruit Adora's cousins."

Adora shook her head, "I don't need to see my cousins naked."

Meric shrugged, "It's just flesh."

Adora rolled her eyes, "I'm fine with them joining the pack and the nudity there but I don't want to see them put on display like the pictures that are probably dancing around your dirty mind Elnore."

Elnore stuck out her tongue at Adora in a very unladylike fashion.

Rose grinned as she sinuously crawled over toward where Frank was sitting. "You know it is the last day of the year, we should be having wild kinky sex."

Frank watched as the light from the fire played along the girl's pale flesh. "Alright."

Lenora grinned as she pulled her twin into her lap, "You want to play with me or are you going to go after Meric?"

Lillian grinned, "I think I'll have some fun with Meric, you can play with Adora so that Gabrielle can have Rasha."

Adora blushed slightly as she looked at Lenora, "Alright."

Lillian grinned as she wiggled out of her twin's lap and made her way over to Meric. "This will be fun."

Gabrielle smiled as Rasha made her way over to her.

Kia frowned, "What about me?"

Heather grinned as she walked back in out of the snowy cold night holding her cloak closed with one hand and her magical cell phone in the other, "You can sit in the middle and finger fuck yourself while you watch everyone have fun. Make sure your keep your ass up and on display."

Gabrielle smiled as she trailed her fingers over the other girl's flesh while she looked at Heather, "So what's up?"

"I was just checking in, good news though. Leo found out what caused the problem with the fae and has a solution. He could use our help in the morning."

Gabrielle smiled, "Good. I'll call him back in a bit. You want to show Kia how it's done?"

Heather chuckled as she took off her cloak and boots revealing that she was wearing no more than anyone else under the cloak, "I would love to." She grinned as she danced over to a clear fur in the middle of the room to show off her writhing body to best effect.

Kia watched with lust and a little bit of envy.

January 1st 1501

Leo smiled at the half sleepy look on his sisters' face as the two of them exited the portal. "What no pokegirls?"

Gabrielle shook her head, "Heather is playing milk dispenser for Adora's pack and Sarah and Melody are off on their own projects and Morrigan is still off tormenting the French. She should be along shortly."

Rose shrugged, "And Taika isn't a fighter."

"What about Abby?"

Abby grinned as she appeared behind Tiffany with her hands placed over the girl's eyes, "Guess who."

Tiffany grinned then called out happily, "Found her."

Abby giggled as she dropped her hands and gave the rabbit eared girl a hug. "I've missed you so much. You would have loved the orgy we had last night."

Tiffany grinned, "Oh?"

"Oh yeah, Adora's pack is so cute. You'll have to meet them."

"Looking forward to it."

Leo rolled his eyes, "Alright, I thought you would bring more forces…"

Gabrielle shook her head, "We got reports that a large force of fae have moved to the castle where we need to go… we'd never get an army there in one piece, probably not even in several pieces, so we'll just have to sneak in."

Abby grinned, "That's why she brought me, I'm good at sneaking."

Leo nodded, "Alright." He looked at Mortalis, "How many of the guys are good at stealth?"

He shrugged, "As you know, everyone that's left isn't bad, but the only one that I think that could actually keep up is Ben."

"Alright. Rose, are you coming with?"

Rose shook her head, "No, I was just transportation support. I don't sneak well enough and I can get caught in wards."

He nodded, "In that case, are you willing to help my people do some hit and run as a distraction?"

She nodded, "What are you thinking?"

"They can feel teleportation from a long ways away, I figure if you hop the men around causing as much destruction as you can, it should cut down on the fae noticing any particular teleport jump."

She nodded, "And any distraction is a good one."

He nodded, "Yeah."

"That I can do."

Gabrielle nodded, "That should help, good call bro."

He grinned, "I've been doing this a while."

She grinned, "Good to hear. Let's bring this chapter of the world to a close."

Tiffany sneezed then looked around, "Who's packing the magic. There is a lot of it around."

Gabrielle frowned, "Damn, I was hoping the lead lined box would do a better job of hiding them."

Mortalis frowned, "Hiding what?"

Gabrielle reached into her bag and pulled out a large metal box then opened it.

Mortalis stepped back as the hairs on his arms stood up and he took an involuntary step back. "Close that. They might feel that even from here."

Tiffany sneezed again before Gabrielle quickly closed the box. "On second thought I think I'll stay with the rest of the troops, if you're going to be using that much magic I'll be a liability."

Gabrielle nodded grimly, "I plan to finish this one way or another."

Mortalis frowned, "How…?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Over many years in a place with a lot of magic." She shrugged, "It should be enough to deal with things."

Mortalis shivered, he hadn't quite believed Leo when he said his sister was scary powerful. Of course he himself was powerful but the power he had felt off the marbles in the box was way past anything he could do. He shook his head, he felt a touch better about the mission to get in there now that he knew at least one person might have enough magic to fight their way clear if things went badly. "I'll talk to the men and we'll get things going."

Leo glanced over at Tiffany, "Go have fun, if things get bad get back home with as many of the men as you can. You're more important though. And get Laura and Kyara over here. I'm going to want them along for the stealth mission. Otherwise they'll never forgive me."

She grinned as she headed off to collect her harem sisters, "Aye aye sir."

He glanced at Gabrielle, "I hope you know what you're doing."

She grinned, "Yeah, just don't tell mom how dangerous this mission was."

"I've no intention of telling the parents any more than they need to, at least until it's over."

"They are so going to ground us for a while after this."

He shrugged, "Well worth it."

She grinned, "You're my favorite brother."

"I'm your only brother."

She laughed, "See favorite by default."

Morrigan smiled as she watched the local priest help one of his local congregation members with patching up a damaged roof. It had been interesting listening to mass on Christmas. Not that she was particularly in favor of Christianity because she wasn't but the various traditions were different from the ones she had grown up with as well as the ones practiced in Avalon. There hadn't been anything about hellfire or damnation or burning people at the stake or any of that mess. She had spent the last week hanging out and watching the townsfolk actually help each other. It was a bit of a change from what she was used to seeing. She smiled as she pulled out her lunch and started eating as she waited for the priest to finish and head back to the church.

Father Frances looked concernedly at the strange girl that was sitting on the steps leading into the church, "Are you alright? You look a little…"

She smiled, "Blue? That's actually rather normal. I assure you my clothes and cloak are enough to keep me warm enough."

He nodded, "Well in that case, is there something that I can do for you, or are you just enjoying the nice day?"

She smiled; it was actually not too bad of a day for the first of January. A touch colder than she would like but the snow was pretty, it gave everything a nice fresh look. "It could be worse, could be colder."

He smiled, "Do you want to come in, I'll put some tea on."

"I could use some tea before I leave."

He priest smiled as he opened the door and entered the small church and headed to the stove so that he could stick the tea pot on it. "So what do you think of our town?"

"It's nice, quiet and the people seem nice. This is the second time I've been here."

"Oh?"

"I caught the singing and a bit of your speech on Christmas. I've been on the road a lot lately and I missed hearing music."

He nodded, "Not much for services are you?"

She shrugged, "I like the music more I think. Don't catch of lot of that these days, mostly hellfire and brimstone speeches."

He sighed, "Wasn't always like that. Not that I'm opposed to a little bit of hellfire for serious sinners you understand but lately it seems like anything is cause for damnation."

She chuckled, "Unless you pay your indulgences of course."

The priest rolled his eyes, "Of course that coin could be better spent of children's clothing or blankets to keep people warm during the winter."

Morrigan nodded, "Would be better that way, but most of the priests I've met lately don't see it that way."

He nodded, "Sad but true. I just wish the church would send some of that money here so that we could buy several pairs of shoes, blankets and such things for the children. But of course I can't see that happening."

"Funny how that works. Though speaking of, do you have a donation box? I've got a couple of coins to spare for the children."

He smiled and pointed toward the front of the church, "Normally I would wave it away from a traveler but any help you could give would be appreciated." He also figured that judging by the quality of her clothes she could afford to donate a couple of silver without too much trouble.

She smiled, "No worries, I have plenty enough gold for my own use." She headed to the front of the church and had to look around for the donation box. It was in a spot that while not blatant when you walked in was easy enough to get to leaving. She smiled as she pulled out several large coffers from her bag and set them in the mostly empty donation box. There were a couple of coppers in there but other than that the box was empty, not too surprising for the middle of the week after a holiday. She smiled, this seemed like as good of place as any to get rid of the gold she had taken off the priests she had killed in the last town. She walked back over and took the offered cup of tea, "Thanks."

He smiled, "You're welcome. I got that tea off a traveling gypsy."

"Oh do tell." She enjoyed the priest's light conversation for a long while before Gabrielle's voice interrupted her thoughts, 'Sorry love but can you come find me? I'm over in Ireland and I could use your help. Don't hurry too much but we need to leave soon.' She tossed a thought back, 'Alright love, I'm on my way.' She blinked, "Ah excuse me, I need to go."

He priest nodded, "That's quite alright, I don't remember the last time I spent an afternoon just telling stories. It was nice."

She smiled as she handed the priest her empty tea mug, "You should do it more often, you're quite good at it. Maybe I'll see you around."

The old priest smiled as the lovely young lady left. He spent a few minutes finishing the rest of his tea before he got curious and decided to see how much of a donation she left. He was more than a little surprised to find that his donation box was filled with well made coffers. He opened one of the coffers and was surprised when gold coins glittered inside. He ignored the piece of folded parchment as he checked the rest of the coffers. His eyes widened when he opened the rest and found that they were all filled with gold. He carefully reached back into the first coffer and pulled out the note, "Enjoy your people and get the children some shoes and blankets, Morrigan." He smiled, such a sweet girl.

Ben jumped a touch as a tall blue elf girl appeared a yard or so away from Leo's sister. Unless he wildly missed his guess she was the last member of their stealth party. Either that or there were a couple blue elf girls floating around. This was the first time he had actually met most of the group, while he knew Mortalis and Leo of course, he had only heard rumors of Gabrielle and Abby before. The new girl was a different story, the tales that he heard about her painted her as a plague on the church though to be fair they had been a plague on the people for a while so the tales were probably exaggerated. He waited patiently as Leo explained the plan and each person's part of the plan. His part was fairly simple, don't make noise and follow along. It was his job if he could to get several key items from the vaults all without being seen, no pressure and all that. He just hoped the rest of the group could sneak in quietly enough.

Several hours later he was more than a touch creeped out to find that the only one less quiet than he was Leo and that not by much. Several times they had had to stop and hide as a patrol passed close. Other times Gabrielle and Morrigan would sneak out to lead the fae patrol away. They would then sneak carefully back and say that the patrol had left. It was the most frustrating five miles that he had ever walked. Still they had maneuvered down through the snow covered forest and used the snow as a cover as they managed to sneak all the way up to the castle walls without being seen. Though the snow storm that Mortalis had conjured had helped to keep them from being seen, it was still a bit tricky to get into the castle from here. He gestured toward the base of the tower and whispered, "There is a secret passage there. This should take us into the servant area and from there around the castle."

Leo nodded, "Alright, let's do it."

Mortalis nodded, "I'll stay out here and keep the storm going."

Leo nodded, "Alright."

Gabrielle was trying hard not to grumble as they carefully stalked through the underground passageway, she really wished that she could have just done this herself without witnesses but she wasn't quite arrogant enough to think that she could pull it off without problems. She knew that once she opened up with her magics the fae would notice that someone powerful was here. Still she was just hoping that her brother's friends wouldn't freak too much when she went on the offensive. She sighed as the alarm was raised by a vicious looking redcap that jumped at her. She smiled grimly as she slid to the left to allow him to slide passed her and onto Morrigan's blade. She winced as she heard alarm gongs being raised throughout the castle. "So much for stealth. Ben you and Leo get those artifacts, take Laura and Kyara with you. Teleport out if you need to. I'm going to go cause some trouble." She tossed a thought to Abby, 'Keep my brother safe.'

'Will do boss.'

Morrigan shook her head, "We're going to go cause some trouble."

Leo nodded, "Fine, just make sure it's enough."

Morrigan watched the four sneak off. "Just stay behind me."

Gabrielle sighed, "I'll stay out of your way."

"Thank you." She smiled as she got to an intersection and found a group of redcaps. "Die."

Gabrielle watched with amusement as Morrigan jumped at the redcaps. She carefully stayed against the wall waiting for Morrigan to deal with the redcaps. It wasn't that she couldn't fight; it was just that Morrigan liked it and she was trying to not use her magic before she had to. She lurched to the side as a large ugly looking troll put his fist through the wall where her head had been just a second ago. She scowled as she reached up and grabbed the troll's arm and tried to move it. It actually worked great for a second before the troll lifted her off the ground thus removing her leverage. She grumbled as she changed tactics and used the troll's arm to swing around and catch the troll in the face with her foot. She grunted as he staggered back a single step. "Worse than kicking concrete."

The creature roared loudly but not intelligibly. Or at least it wouldn't have been without her translation ring. It translated as 'food'. The troll swung its fist at the annoying creature that hit it.

Gabrielle let go of the troll's arm and hit the floor rolling. "Damn they build you guys tough here." She pushed herself off the ground and dove for the spot between the creature's legs. She spared a quick glance for how Morrigan was doing and noticed that it would be at least three more seconds before she was free to even realize that there was a problem and another couple to get back over here. She rolled to her feet spun around and slammed her foot into the troll's groin hard enough to lift the massive creature off the ground. She winched at the high pitched shriek the troll unleashed before he curled up in a ball from the pain. She kicked him in the temple a couple of times to make sure he was down.

Morrigan blinked as she walked back to check on Gabrielle and found the downed troll. "Sorry, I know the plan was to not use magic, but I'm glad he's down."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I didn't. I kicked him in the nuts."

Morrigan looked at the large troll again then at Gabrielle, "Oh, next time shout or something."

She sighed, "I didn't want them to hear us."

Morrigan sighed, "Let's get out of here then. We still have to find the human responsible for this then get him to reverse it."

Gabrielle nodded, "Alright."

Ben frowned as the entire castle shook. "What the hell was that?"

Leo shrugged, "Probably my sister, she has a flare for the dramatic at times. We've gotten the items we need, let's make some magical noise then bug out."

Laura grinned as she looked at Kyara , "Let's do some damage."

"With pleasure."

Ben gulped nervously, "Can't we just bug out first?"

He glanced down the corridor and noticed a whole troop of redcaps coming their way. "New plan, we're getting out of here then getting Mortalis out."

"What about your sister?"

"She can take care of herself."

Abby wasted no more time before she reached out and teleported Ben outside. She reached out and tossing a bolt of black lightning down the hall. "Let's get out of here Leo."

He nodded, "Yeah. You want to do the honors?"

Abby smiled as she grabbed the two girls before they could leap into battle and used her tail to wrap around Ben's leg and teleported with them to outside the castle.

Several seconds ago Morrigan looked at a large sphere of glass with a human trapped inside. "Well that explains how they kept him from rescinding the bane of Iron."

Gabrielle nodded, "Teleport it out of here."

"You'll be right behind me?"

"Yep."

Morrigan smiled, "If not, I'm coming for you."

Gabrielle smiled as the entire castle shook and the air got heavy with magic as Morrigan and the sphere vanished. She reached out and felt along the new ward and grinned as she found that it was a very strong teleportation ward. "This will work perfectly." She reached out with her magic and wove her own threads of magic through the wards. "Damn automated defenses, hopefully she teleported far out of the area." She smiled as she spotted the first of the unseelie fae nobles charging into the chamber. She smiled as she pulled out an iron long sword and waited for the creature to charge her.

The noble smirked as she let the mortal run her through with the blade so that she could get close enough to claw at the girl's face. "Iron doesn't work anymore."

Gabrielle grinned as she released the handle of the blade and grabbed the noble's face, "I know." She ripped at the creature's magic and life force. The creature shrieked as she felt her very life being ripped away. Gabrielle held on tightly as she drained the thrashing noble of her life. She ignored the sword as it fell from the tattered remains of the creature's clothes as Gabrielle dropped the rubbish that had been its body. She smirked as she considered the remaining fae nobles. "You don't even understand the best part." She grinned as she turned into a small storm of mist and charged the group. Hardly before they could blink she reformed, latched a hand on a troll lord and ripped at his magic and strength, even as she sunk her hand into a banshee and drank it's essence down. She laughed as the banshee crumbled with an inhuman scream. By the time the crumbling dust would have hit the floor they had already vanished. She reached up with her now free hand and broke the troll's neck. She ripped at the dying creature with her magic so that she drank in the rest of its power. She lashed out with her magic and arcs of lightning ripped through the remaining fae nobles. She twisted the chains of lightning and pulled them toward her. She laughed as she started drinking each of the thrashing creatures down one by one. She grinned as she jumped at the last of the elven looking fae and sank her teeth into her guy's neck as she ripped at his power and drank his blood. She lifted her head up and screamed, "I'm coming for you all."

Leo felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard his sister's voice echo throughout the castle. "We should get out of here now."

Ben frowned, "You're just going to leave her?"

He shook his head, "Believe me she doesn't want to be found right now. Abby get us out of here. You're keyed to her magic you can still teleport."

Abby concentrated on sending a message to Rose, "Bug out, Gabrielle went into blood lust mode, get your people out of there."

'Oh fuck.'

Abby smiled as she wrapped her tail around Leo and his two girls, grabbed Mortalis and Ben each with a hand and teleported the five of them back to Dungannon to meet up with Morrigan.

Bill looked over the glass sphere that surrounded the king. "Are you sure we actually want to set this guy free?"

Rose nodded, "Yeah, we'll spin the story and give the folk something to believe in. If he doesn't agree to reinstate the bane of iron then we'll try with the next in line. If that doesn't work I'm not sure what to try."

He nodded, "We could possibly have Jack O'Neill try."

"Not sure just the same last name would help, he's from another world even. On the other hand, if this doesn't work I'm willing to try a lot of things. Break it."

He drew his wand and waved it through some complicated gestures and banished the glass sphere.

Connor O'Neill gasped as he took a breath again and looked around, "What happened? Where is the Fae lady?"

Rose frowned, "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I rescinded the bane of iron then asked her to keep me safe from the church."

"She imprisoned you in a glass sphere most likely to not only keep you safe like you wanted but to keep you from reinstating the bane of iron. They got rid of the Christians in Ireland but they weren't exactly gentle about how they did it. Long story short your country is a mess and the unseelie fae are causing destruction all over the place. Even the seelie aren't being too helpful right now."

He blinked in surprise and probably shock, "I'll fix it, just show me how."

Rose nodded, "I'll help you with this then we can talk about what it's going to take to get your country back together."

"What do you want out of it?"

She smiled, "Most likely your first born daughter." She shrugged, "But don't worry about that, you have a great deal of things to fix and you have people to take care of."

Bill watched him lead the man off toward the tower so that he could fix the fae mess. He wondered how long it was going to take before they had control of the royal line for all three kingdoms and where they would go next. He shrugged as long as they didn't end up with a ministry of magic that was worse than they had in his world he didn't much care.


	52. Picking up the broken pieces

Willow yawned as she walked back from the room the room they had reserved as the portal room for Avalon. "Can I have a vacation to recover from our vacation?"

Dawn chuckled, "Oh please, all we did was exercise one little demon and give a slayer her information packet."

"Don't forget killing that freaking priest and besides it wasn't a little demon it was a god's demon child."

Dawn shivered, "I hate priests. He was a complete nut job."

Willow sighed, "And the demon possessed father of Astor? You don't think he's a complete nut job?"

"Wouldn't you be if you had a demon in your head all your life?"

"Probably, I'm just amazed that he kept from killing innocent people all of these years." She shivered as she walked into the lounge, "I'm just glad to be out of there."

Rose looked up from her book, "Out of where?"

"Miami."

"The hacker's convention didn't go well?"

"Oh that part went fine; it was finding out that our slayer's father had a demon rattling around in his head."

"Icky, you did get rid of it right?"

Willow nodded, "Yeah, took us longer than we thought it would though."

Rose nodded, "Glad to hear that, it's probably for the best… we finally got Gabrielle to sleep…"

Dawn looked at her daughter with concern, "What happened?"

Rose sighed, "You want the good news or the bad news?"

Willow winced, "How bad?"

"None of our people died…"

"That's good, let's start with the bad then."

Rose looked around to make sure that there was no one else around to over hear then closed the door. "Gabrielle went off the deep end and ate most of Ireland's unseelie court of nobles. It should be a while before they're a problem again."

Dawn blinked, "She ate them?"

Rose winced, "Yeah… drained their power and yeah let's just leave it at that…"

Willow went a little green as she considered that idea a bit then forced herself to focus on something else, "Is there good news?"

Rose nodded, "We were able to restore the bane of iron and break the fae's spell that prevented tech from working. We've already sent supplies and secured an agreement for the king's first born daughter."

Willow sighed, "How bad is Gabrielle doing?"

"Hell if I know, she curled up with Lenora and Lillian and fell asleep not long after she got back. I think she needs a vacation."

Willow nodded, "Yeah, any suggestions?"

Rose nodded, "Someplace without combat, maybe someplace quiet."

Dawn sighed, "Sounds like a plan. We should be able to handle the paperwork side of things while she's gone."

Rose smiled faintly, "Alright, you think we can actually convince her to take her vacation time?"

Willow shrugged, "I'm going to try. I wouldn't mind Xander talking to her as well about everything that happened, maybe it would help."

Dawn looked at Willow with a frown, "Might help, it is Xander."

Willow smiled, "He's good at that type of thing."

Xander smiled as Gabrielle flopped herself down on the couch, "We'll you're here and only like twenty minutes late."

She sighed, "Sorry, I was enjoying the sex with my siblings too much to want to quit."

He chuckled, "Yeah, because that's not messed up."

She frowned at him, "Hey now, aren't you supposed to be like all nonjudgmental and such?"

He shrugged, "I call them like I see them. So have you figured out where you're going to take your council mandated vacation yet? Or are you still arguing that you need a vacation?"

She sighed, "No arguments here."

He blinked, "Really?"

She sighed as images of draining the blood out of the Unseelie faerie flashed before her eyes, "I don't want to be a threat to my girls, while I don't think I would ever hurt them, I didn't think I would ever lose control enough to…" She stopped as she felt her stomach try to heave all of its contents out as she remembered swallowing chunks of faerie flesh in her fight. She was glad that he waited patiently for her to get control of her dry heaving without interrupting. "So yeah, I think I need some time off. Rose offered me a chance to spend some time anywhere I want, so I figured I'd take it."

He nodded, "So where or when are you going?"

"Of the record?"

"If you want."

"Promise?"

Xander smiled, "As long as you're safe, I'm not going to break confidence."

"Rose found a version of Sunnydale that is or was scheduled to fall into hell when Acathla was unleashed."

"So you plan to go back and save it?"

She nodded, "That and see if I can get a younger Willow into a bed."

Xander chuckled, "You're hornier than before aren't you?"

Gabrielle sighed, "Side effect from drinking as much faerie blood as I did, at least that's our best guess."

"So when are you going back?"

"I don't know, I was thinking to before Buffy came to Sunnydale but not much before that. Probably just to the start of the year."

"I'm glad you're going to take some vacation time though I'd rather it be someplace safer than Sunnydale."

"I'm a monster, I should be safe enough."

"You're my favorite little monster though."

She frowned, "Hey, I'm taller than you are."

He frowned, "When did that happen?"

"A while ago, I just didn't want you to bruise your ego."

He chuckled, "Alright." He sighed, "Can you just do me one favor though?"

She nodded, "What's that?"

"Save Jesse."

She stretched her toes out over the couch, "I'll try."

He nodded, "That's all I can ask. So I'm going to state in the official log that you seem alright but that I'd like to schedule a counseling meeting for when you get back."

She nodded, "Might be a while on my end but with Rose to jump me back, it shouldn't be that long on your end."

He smiled as he reached over and rubbed her head, "Just get better."

She sighed, "I'll try."

"So are you taking your girls?"

She shook her head, "Not for this, I just want some time to do something different and be myself again. They've been around for more than half the time I can remember, I love them but I want to experience life without them weighing me down, you know?"

"I can understand that."

She smiled, "Thanks. Just take care of things while I'm gone."

He grinned, "Have lots of kinky sex and have fun."

She grinned, "Oh I plan on it. I might even bring some people back with me depending on how things go."

He smiled, "Good, it's getting a bit dull around here without the occasional apocalypse."

"Now you're just saying that to make me feel better?"

"Did it work?"

"A little."

"Get going."

She smiled as rolled off the couch and headed out of the counselor's office and headed down to medical to pick up the latest sample of the shifter virus the lab techs were working with.

Rose grinned as Gabrielle walked up with her bags packed, "So, are you ready for a new adventure?"

Gabrielle smiled, "Yeah, said my 'see you laters' to everyone already. Xander even gave me an envelope with something for the other Xander in it just in case I needed to prove my credibility later. So unless there is something else you need to do, let's just get out of here before everyone starts crying and being clingy."

She smiled raised her hand, gestured and created a glowing green portal. "Nope, I already grabbed what I needed to, looks like we're off on a new adventure."

Gabrielle grinned as they jumped through the portal.

~An~ It has been a hell of a weird trip on this story. There were things I learned, things I wish I had done better mixed in with the occasional thing that I thought I got right. At least it was a learning experience. I have new understanding and respect for shows or stories that span a large chunk of time that can keep everything straight. This story was made all the more complicated by my other series that had some bleed over in genres. Still all told, it was a fun story to write. To anyone that has actually followed it to its end I salute you.


End file.
